Last Updated: June 19, 2023, 11:52 IST
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
File photo of Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. (Credits: AFP)
Ron DeSantis officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign on May 24 casting himself as Trump’s only legitimate Republican rival
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has announced his US presidential campaign, fares better against President Joe Biden than Donald Trump in the 2024 elections, a new poll has found.
According to a report in Daily Mail, Biden is ahead of all his potential Republican rivals except DeSantis, against whom he is trailing 43% to 44%.
Others poll estimates have also predicted similar results with the Republican governor topping Biden by 1.3 percentage points.
DeSantis officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign on May 24 in a glitch-marred Twitter announcement, casting himself as Trump’s only legitimate Republican rival. He has made electability a core tenet of his pitch to the GOP primary voters.
“l think that there’s a lot of voters who just aren’t going to vote for (Trump), who don’t like Biden. At the end of the day, I think we have a great track record in Florida of reaching voters who had traditionally not voted Republican,” DeSantis said earlier this month.
The Florida Governor also has a five-point edge over Biden among independents, winning them 43% to 38%, according to the report.
DeSantis’ viral Donald Trump is facing multiple federal charges over his hoarding of government secrets. However, Trump has dismissed the notion that he would ever drop out of his party’s primary contest. DeSantis has exercised restraint in comments over his rival’s legal woes
“DeSantis would most benefit from Trump dropping out of the race but he seems to have calculated that they have many of the same potential voters so doesn’t want to alienate them,” Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told AFP.
In the poll estimate, Trump is lagging behind Biden 44% to 46%. However, RealClearPolitics aggregate predicts that in case of Trump vs Biden fight, Trump has 1.8% point lead over Biden.
Moreover, 71% of Democrats feel Biden is too old, while just 14% feel he is the right age and 15% were unsure, according to the report. Biden, 80, is already the oldest president in US history. If he wins re-election, he’ll be 86 at its conclusion.
Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have dominated the early Republican race. President Joe Biden faces a couple of Democratic challengers but is expected to secure his party’s nomination.
