New 2024 poll: Trump far ahead of DeSantis, but poll has good news for both

Donald Trump is currently the lone Republican candidate for president in 2024, beating out his closest potential rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a new poll.

A Morning Consult poll released Wednesday shows Trump leading DeSantis by 17 points in a hypothetical GOP primary matchup between the two conservative favorites.

Trump received support from 48% of respondents while DeSantis came in a clear second place – on either side – at 31%.

Those two are preceded by former Vice President Mike Pence at just 8% and, laughably, now-unemployed former lawmaker Liz Cheney at 3%.

Morning Consult reports that the main takeaways from their poll are Trump’s steady lead, indeed his favorable rating. improvingAnd the news cycle is providing them with more positive reports.

Trump beats DeSantis in potential GOP primary matchup, new poll finds https://t.co/DSrZCYDHmv pic.twitter.com/IDGUFEo7SC

— The Hill (@TheHill) January 18, 2023

RELATED: Report: Dems fear third-party ticket in 2024 – ‘Trump will prevail’

Trump tops DeSantis in new 2024 poll

To no one’s surprise, Trump’s problems come not from a primary matchup against DeSantis in 2024, but his matchup against Joe Biden if the president announces a re-election bid.

In the same Morning Consult poll, Biden beat Trump 43%-40%, while DeSantis beat the Democrat by a similar three-point margin.

The organization describes it as a highly electable issue in the general election, but it may more accurately reflect the fact that both Biden and Trump have about 99% name recognition, along with significantly negative favorability ratings for both gentlemen.

DeSantis maintains a favorability rating of +58 points, but unlike Trump, has the highest percentage who have no opinion of the Florida governor — 21% have never heard of him, or have heard of him but have no opinion.

The thing is, there are plenty of positives for both Trump and DeSantis to come out of this 2024 matchup poll.

WPA Survey:

DeSantis: 45%
Biden: 42%

Biden: 49%
Trump: 41%

More and more surveys show this. It’s too early for 2024, obviously, but polls like these show that Americans are well off Biden but don’t want to go back to Trump. https://t.co/2dvyeKuE1p

– Don K. Eberhart (@DanKEberhart) January 16, 2023

RELATED: Has Trump threatened a third-party run to split the GOP?

Who is your choice?

A second poll by WPA Intelligence shows a similar scenario, with DeSantis narrowly outpacing Biden in a hypothetical 2024 matchup, while Trump trails the current president.

DeSantis has not announced his candidacy, though several pundits expect him to begin campaigning after his state’s legislative session ends in May.

You can literally put “Trump” on anything and it will sell. The man is the best man running the waking economy and America. #Trump2024 pic.twitter.com/D1fpjanwh2

— Heather Mullins (@TalkMullins) January 17, 2023

Political Insider reported in November that DeSantis was telling donors he was “reevaluating” plans to launch a presidential campaign in 2024.

Trump jumped into the fray after the midterm elections in November.

He has released campaign videos urging Congress to issue hearings and subpoenas to investigate the FBI’s role in using Twitter to control information and influence elections.

In another campaign video, Trump announced a free speech policy platform that seeks to ‘remove and destroy’ left-wing censorship.

“If we don’t have free speech, we don’t have a free country,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Awesome! I absolutely love President Trump’s policy platform to restore free speech.

This type of policy will put him back in the White House! pic.twitter.com/UYPeY671cl

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) December 15, 2022

An interesting poll will be how a united ticket of Trump and DeSantis will fare against Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. I doubt the Republican ticket will have a lead of more than 3 points.

The latest Morning Consult survey was conducted over the weekend. It’s unclear whether Biden’s numbers against DeSantis and Trump will be negatively affected by his classified records scandal, which has been swirling this week.