If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants Donald Trump to be clean cut, suburban women just don’t believe it, according to an exclusive poll from .
It shows that while the former president loses seven points to President Joe Biden in this crucial group, DeSantis is also five points behind.
Nearly lifelong Republican Cindy Lackey thinks she knows why.
DeSantis started out as a moderate Republican, she told from her home in Parkland, Fla., before attempting to outflank Trump with culture wars that leaned toward the far right but alienated her and her friends.
“I have many friends who are teachers and principals, and in elementary schools they feel like they are limited in their opportunities for inclusion,” said the 53-year-old mother-of-three.
A new poll by /JL Partners shows President Joe Biden is slamming female voters against potential Republican challengers. He has an advantage in suburban women, a key sector both parties will fight over in 2024
Cindy Lackey lives in Florida and has seen Gov. Ron DeSantis up close. She says he alienated women like her with his culture wars and anti-abortion stance
“I don’t think Trump would have done that.” Honestly, I don’t think he would have taken on the same battles as DeSantis and upset so many people in his own state.”
JL Partners’ poll of 1,000 likely voters across the country shows Biden enjoys strong support among women in general and is winning among suburban women against a range of possible Republican candidates.
In this group, the President beats Pence by five points and Chris Christie by eight points.
Analysts and strategists have long focused on being among the key swing voices at a time when Democrats control cities and Republicans control rural counties.
And the prospects for the GOP are not good no matter which candidate they vote for, says James Johnson, co-founder of Republican polling firm JL Partners
“Suburban women are Biden’s bulwark,” he said.
“Even though the rest of the country is turning away from the current president, suburban women still favor Biden.” It’s not just a Trump problem: every major Republican candidate struggles with this group.
“Whether it’s abortion, schools, or inflation, the GOP needs a strategy to reach these important constituents: Bidding farewell to Trump isn’t enough to win them over.”
The battle for the Republican nomination is currently a race between Trump and DeSantis. Florida governor supporters say he has a better chance in the 2024 general election
A new poll for shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is currently best positioned to run against President Joe Biden in the 2024 election
In polls of Republican primary voters, DeSantis ranks second behind Trump. And his supporters are hoping his charismatic wife and family will endear him to women who have said they object to Trump’s brash demeanor and dressing room language since his “grab her by the p****” comment in 2016 has appeared.
The Florida governor has passed many laws to limit the topics that can be discussed in classrooms about sexual orientation and gender identity.
And taking a hard line on abortion is also a central part of the DeSantis message. Just before his campaign began, the Florida governor signed legislation banning abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. (It hasn’t come into effect yet, however, as a 15-week ban is still being challenged in court.)
Pence, an evangelical Christian, also takes a hard-line position.
On Friday at the Faith & Freedom conference in Washington, he urged all Republican candidates to support a 15-week abortion ban “as a national minimum standard.”
But Trump has already warned that the matter will cost Republicans at the ballot box, even though it was his selection of conservative Supreme Court justices that brought about the end of Roe vs. Wade’s abortion protections.
The former vice president is five points behind Biden in the poll, while the former New Jersey governor is eight points behind, despite occupying more centrist terrain
Lackey, who works in healthcare IT recruitment, is the kind of woman Republicans need to win back.
In 2016, horrified by the rise of Trump, she wrote on her ballot on behalf of Senator Mitt Romney. In 2020, she did the once unthinkable and volunteered for the Biden campaign.
She even registered as a Democrat to have a say in the party’s primary election last year.
Now she’s looking for a conservative who can put the country back on track.
She said she wanted to know more about Senator Tim Scott’s campaign and was drawn to his message that the country’s bitter divisions needed to be healed.
But the candidates’ focus on abortion left her and her friends cold, she said.
Lackey said she wanted to learn more about Senator Tim Scott’s campaign and was drawn to his message that the country’s bitter divisions needed to be healed
“A lot of women who are strong Republican women don’t like the state of women’s rights that much,” she said.
“Once again, it is an offering from the far right, the religious right…making policy for this core group of the religious right.”
She lives in Florida and has seen DeSantis up close. And he’s unfazed by his headline-grabbing arguments with Disney and the teachers.
A candidate from Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney would have a better chance of winning over her and her friends, she said.
“If Republicans could just put forward a moderate candidate, I think they would shut out Biden and win over everyone in the middle,” she said.