As Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis touted his party’s midterm successes in the state this week, a new Marquette University Law School poll shows that his overall popularity has surpassed former President Donald Trump.
Republicans did not gain as many seats as they expected during the midterms, with some Trump-backed candidates losing.
“You know, we assumed we were going to end up with like 245 House members, we’re at 222, it looks like, which is a huge underperformance,” DeSantis said this week during a press conference. However, he noted that his campaign was a success.
Marquette collected answers from 1,004 registered voters nationwide Nov. 15 through Nov. 22 and released the results Thursday. They show that, if the 2024 presidential election were held now and Trump was running against current President Joe Biden, 44% would vote for Biden, compared to 34% for Trump.
When asked the same question with DeSantis instead of Trump, voters were split evenly, with both Biden and DeSantis at 42%.
“DeSantis has increased his support in polling since January, while Biden’s support has remained stable,” said the poll summary. Although the overall sampling of voters appeared to find DeSantis and Biden equally favorable, Trump still holds sway among Republican-identified voters.
According to the Marquette results, 55% of Republicans and independents who lean Republican would like to see Trump run in 2024, compared to 45% who would not like to see him run. Just 49% of Democrats and independents who lean Democrat would like to see Biden run in 2024 and 51% would not.
“DeSantis has become steadily better known and seen more favorably since January, with 68% holding a favorable opinion, 10% unfavorable, and 22% saying they don’t know enough to give a rating,” Marquette said. At the same time, the dismal GOP showing during the midterms, a DOJ investigation into Trump’s handling of sensitive documents and blowback after the Kanye West/Nick Fuentes meeting at Mar-a-Lago have cast Trump in an increasingly negative light in recent weeks.
“What we’ve done in Florida, is we’ve shown that we’ve exercised leadership, we’ve not kowtowed, we’ve been willing to take on big interests,” said DeSantis this week of his success during the midterms.
With a 68% favorable rating among Republican registered voters, DeSantis also beat Trump’s 67% favorability and his 10% unfavorable percentage was far behind Trump’s 32%.
“DeSantis appeals to many of Trump’s GOP supporters, being seen favorably among Republicans who are also favorable to Trump, and, to a lesser but still-notable degree, he is also seen favorably among those unfavorable to Trump,” said Marquette.
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