Rank and file sumo7/6/2023 Others called him “alienating” and said they “aren’t necessarily comfortable” with his policies.Ĭriticism of his culture-war crusade against Disney has come up as well. “As I started to learn more about Ron DeSantis and where he is on the political spectrum and how he’s voted in the past, now I’m not sure I’d vote for the man,” Sharon, a two-time Trump voter from Illinois, told me. These kinds of attacks are aimed at tying DeSantis to the establishment in the eyes of voters-a view that’s starting to creep into the focus groups. Trump and his super PAC are trying to paint DeSantis as a deficit hawk hell-bent on slashing Medicare and Social Security. Others said they liked his approach to the pandemic and approvingly quoted his unofficial campaign slogan: “Florida is where woke goes to die.”įrom the May 2023 issue: How did America’s weirdest, most freedom-obsessed state fall for an authoritarian governor?īut I’ve seen a marked change in recent weeks. In my focus groups, Republican voters admired the Florida governor’s “aggressiveness,” favorably citing his decision to ship migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. So how is Trump on pace to run away with the nomination?įor a while, DeSantis looked like a plausible contender. They like that the former president is, in their words, a “fighter.” But after eight years of Trump tweets, taunts, and tantrums, they’re open to-in many cases eager for-new alternatives. Over the course of hundreds of focus groups I’ve conducted, a large chunk of GOP voters have made clear that they would be content with a nominee other than Trump in 2024-preferably a “Trump without the baggage”–style candidate. Ron DeSantis is the only candidate within hailing distance of Trump, but his campaign is sputtering. Asa Hutchinson, Tim Scott, and Vivek Ramaswamy toil in also-ran obscurity. Mike Pence is getting booed by party hard-liners. Nikki Haley is apparently double-counting her fundraising. Meanwhile, his Republican opposition is floundering. Since the indictment, Republicans-including those running against him-have rallied to Trump’s defense. Despite leading the GOP to a historically bad midterm, being saddled with a dismal 25 percent approval rating, and becoming the first former president to be indicted, his prospects for winning the Republican nomination are only growing stronger. This isn’t news-he has dominated most polling since the day Joe Biden was sworn in. Donald Trump is the clear GOP front-runner for 2024.
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