While many in the Republican Party believe that Donald Trump will run in the 2024 election and could announce his campaign as early as this summer, the former president will face some competition for the nomination.
According to a New York Times/Siena College poll that was released on Tuesday, among those who voted for Trump in 2020, 44% had a favorable opinion of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, very close to the 46% who still had similar feelings about Trump.
The New York Times went on to say that Trump doesn't have an "insurmountable advantage" if he were to enter the Republican primary, and compared him running against DeSantis to Hillary Clinton running against Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016.
"The survey suggests that Mr. Trump would not necessarily enter a primary with an insurmountable advantage over rivals like Mr. DeSantis," the New York Times wrote. "His share of the Republican primary electorate is less than Hillary Clinton’s among Democrats was at the outset of the 2016 race, when she was viewed as the inevitable front-runner, but ultimately found herself embroiled in a protracted primary against Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont."
Overall, the poll results showed that 49% would vote for Trump if the Republican primary was held today, while 25% said they would vote for DeSantis.
None of the other hypothetical candidates received double-digit support, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"Among primary voters, Mr. DeSantis was the top choice of younger Republicans, those with a college degree and those who said they voted for President Biden in 2020," the New York Times wrote.
CNN reported in June that at the end of May, DeSantis "had $112 million in the bank ahead of his bid for a second term in 2022."
"That is an absolutely stunning number, even in a state like Florida, where it takes a whole lot of money to run for office," CNN's Chris Cillizza wrote. "By way of context, DeSantis raised $59 million and spent $52 million in his 2018 victory over Democrat Andrew Gillum."
On top of that, DeSantis recently met with a group of of donors and other Republican governors and candidates, according to POLITICO.
"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently held a confab of dozens of his top national donors as well as a handful of fellow Republican governors and prominent candidates he’s close to as he runs for reelection and eyes a presidential run in 2024, two sources familiar with the event told Daniel Lippman," POLITICO said.
Trump's dominance in the polls is not what it used to be, as 64% of voters in the New York Times/Siena College poll under the age of 35, as well as 65% with a college degree, said they would vote against Trump in the primary.
Although, if Trump were to win the primary and go up against Biden in a rematch of the 2020 election, the poll showed that the end results could look the same.
"He trailed President Biden, 44 percent to 41 percent, in a hypothetical rematch of the 2020 contest, despite plummeting support for Mr. Biden, with voters nationwide giving him a perilously low 33 percent job-approval rating," according to the New York Times.
"A growing anyone-but-Trump vote inside the party contributed to Mr. Trump’s deficit, with 16 percent of Republicans saying that if he were the nominee they would support Mr. Biden, would back a third-party candidate, wouldn’t vote at all or remained unsure what they would do."
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