Former President Donald Trump opened with a big lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis among Republican voters in California ahead of the 2024 presidential primary, according to poll results released Sunday.
While Trump has support from 44% of California’s likely Republican primary voters, DeSantis has just 26%, said the University of California, Berkley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.
“That’s a notable reversal of their standings three months ago, when DeSantis led Trump by 8 percentage points among the state’s GOP voters,” said the outlet.
Trump and DeSantis were measured against 12 other Republicans, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Overall, 7,465 California registered voters participated online in English and Spanish from May 17 to 22.
DeSantis officially announced his candidacy May 24 during a Twitter Space event, though he had been a rumored contender for Trump since the latter announced his own campaign in November. Although DeSantis maintains a lead over many other potential GOP candidates, Trump has maintained a lead over the governor in many polls over the recent months, even as he has faced unprecedented legal issues for a former head of state in the U.S.
“Trump dominates the news, and I think he enjoys that, and I think he gets the sense when he is dominating the news, he’s probably expanding his messaging to his base,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS poll. “I think this poll pretty much proves that. Even when the news isn’t necessarily great, he’s able to give his own opinion about why things are the way they are, and the Republican base pretty much believes him.”
Among California voters who consider themselves strongly conservative, 62% support Trump, compared to 23% who support DeSantis – who has also made headlines in recent months for his feud with Disney over LGBTQ-related legislation. Trump also had a wide lead among men and among likely GOP voters who did not graduate from college.
Strongly conservative voters also had a more favorable view of Trump at 87% compared to 56% for moderate Republicans.
“DeSantis does better with those moderates – he runs roughly even with Trump among likely Republican voters in that group,” said the Los Angeles Times. “He has a small edge among those who are younger than 40 and runs close to Trump among college graduates.”
However, the governor’s favorability rating has dropped from 79% to 75% since February, while Trump’s increased from 69% to 74%. The share of Republicans with a strongly favorable opinion of DeSantis also dropped from 54% 50 43%.
“All that suggests that a significant share of his support is coming from Republicans who are not fervent DeSantis supporters, but are seeking a viable GOP rival to Trump,” said The Times.
A vast majority of GOP voters in the state (86%) said the multiple ongoing investigations of Trump “were more about politics and political revenge than about law and justice,” while 60% of all California voters said the investigations “aim to hold Trump accountable for his unlawful actions.”
According to a California registration report from last October, nearly 47% of the voters in the state were registered Democrats and around 24% were registered as Republicans. Its presidential primary is scheduled for next March and it will send 169 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisc., next summer.
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