Donald Trump tightens control of Republican race in 2024: Conservative CPAC poll prompts him to get 59% of the vote before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
- In a speech Saturday, Trump again hinted that he plans to run in 2024
- And on Sunday, the CPAC poll gave him a major advantage over rivals
- It was found that 59 percent of those present prefer him as a candidate for 2024
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in second with 28 percent
- That left Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Nicki Haley and Christy Noem as outsiders.
- That meant Trump took five points more than last year
Former president Donald Trump set a marker for other possible Republican runners for 2024, earning 59 percent support from attendees at a major conservative rally in Florida.
The Conservative Conference on Political Action’s annual survey is seen as a key indicator of who is preferred by the party base.
Trump’s victory came as no surprise – but he took five percentage points more than last year – with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who delivered an exciting speech at Thursday’s rally, in second place with 28 percent.
This left the rest of the district as outsiders, with the former secretary of state taking two percent and vice president Mike Pence one percent – along with Nicki Haley, South Dakota Gov. Christie Noem and senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.
But the CPAC’s status as a gathering of hardline conservatives tends to skew results for the party’s trump wing.
Donald Trump’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday night was just in place. A day later, a straw poll confirmed his iron grip on the Conservatives, with 59 percent of those present saying they wanted him to be the Republican candidate in 2024.
He also found that 97 percent of the 2,500 respondents approved of Trump, who spoke about the brand the night before – filled with destructive rhetoric from Democrats and angry tirades against forces against him.
“People have been telling me that things will fade for the president,” said Jim McLaughlin, who conducted the poll.
“I saw the speech last night.” I saw your reaction.
“Nothing has faded for the president.”
A day earlier, Trump left his mark on the gathering in a speech that gave the impression of a man intending to run in 2024.
“We did it twice. And we will do it again, “he told an exciting crowd.
While some senior party figures used the event to bring up the idea of developing a future-oriented program for the interim term and beyond, Trump refocused on his grievances.
“Do you remember what I said years ago?” I think they were spying on my campaign, ‘he said,’ and everyone said … How dare he say that? How dare you? Well, it turned out to be true.
“And I want to thank John Durham for understanding that.”
Trump’s hats and T-shirts were popular with those attending the CPAC conference
Trump was the mainstay of the annual meeting of American conservatives in Orlando
Court documents from Special Prosecutor Durham recently sparked outrage among conservatives that he had uncovered an internet wiretapping that proved Trump right, although Durham was quickly distancing himself from those conclusions in 2020.
He claims that “explosive” new evidence will soon come out, proving that there is falsification.
“These people – they’re called mules – bulletins in Georgia and other swing states were trafficked and sold on an unprecedented scale and brutality … it was just amazing what happened that we recorded them on tape,” he said.
Trump spent Saturday morning playing golf at West Palm Beach, near his home in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump closed on Saturday night. And his image was everywhere during the four days of the conference.
As attendees wore Trump T-shirts and MAGA red hats, many keynote speakers avoided referring to the former president or calling on the party to move away from complaining that the 2020 election was rigged.
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