A straw poll at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) shows President Donald Trump is the runaway favorite among Republicans.
On Saturday, CPAC’s straw poll for the 2024 Republican Party presidential nominee resulted in Trump receiving 62 percent support.
The poll was completed by more than 2,000 CPAC attendees at the event in Fort Washington, Maryland.
The result puts Trump 40 points higher than the second-place candidate, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
CPAC’s straw poll results were announced on Saturday just before Trump took the stage to address the conservative crowd.
Here is the CPAC straw poll:
Trump at 62% followed by DeSantis at 20%.
Somebody named Perry Johnson came in third. pic.twitter.com/EiSfiW0Imp
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 4, 2023
DeSantis came in second place, receiving 20 percent support in the straw poll.
Although he has not officially launched a presidential bid, many political pundits expect DeSantis to announce his candidacy in late spring or early summer at the end of Florida’s current legislative session.
Trump’s victory in the straw poll on Saturday comes after he handily won straw polls at both CPAC events in Orlando, Florida, and Dallas, Texas, last year.
Michigan businessman Perry Johnson, who tried to run for governor of his state, came in third place with five percent support.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, the only two declared candidates featured in the poll, received three and one percent support, respectively.
Other names in the poll included Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who all received one percent support.
Joseph Belnome, a 47-year-old New Jersey resident who attended CPAC, told the New York Post he cast his straw poll ballot for the 45th president because Trump “knows what he’s doing and when he gets in there he doesn’t have to have on-the-job training.”
“DeSantis is a good governor,” Belnome added.
“I think he can be a good future president …
“I don’t think it’s his time yet.
“I think Trump has to finish what he started there.”
In the vice presidential candidate straw poll, former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake received the most support at 20 percent, while DeSantis was second place at 14 percent.
READ MORE: DeSantis Offers High Praise for Trump Ahead of Possible 2024 Nomination Battle
