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According to a new poll, 44% of Republicans don’t want former President Donald Trump to run again for reelection.
The poll, conducted by AP-NORC, asked respondents for their thoughts about Trump’s 2024 run, his ongoing investigations and the recent indictment in the Manhattan case regarding the hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Overall, 70% of respondents said they did not want Trump to run again, and 57% said the indictment was justified. However, unsurprisingly, only 25% of Republicans said that the indictment was justified, compared to 90% of Democrats.
The party divide remained prominent across respondents’ views on the ongoing investigations into the former president. While few Republicans expressed that Trump’s actions in the Capitol riot, Trump’s handling of the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, or his alleged interference in the Georgia election were illegal, the majority Democrats expressed the opposite.
The poll comes as a number of Republicans are jumping into the 2024 presidential race to rival Trump. Earlier this month, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced he was running. Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also threw their hats in the ring for the Republican nomination.
The Republicans most perceived to be top Trump rivals—Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence—have yet to formally announce their White House runs, but are expected to make their bids soon. Pence said last week that he will make a decision “in weeks and not months.”
In the AP-NORC poll, when asked which possible 2024 presidential candidates they found favorable, 68% of Republicans said they have a favorable view of Trump, and 63% of Republicans said they have a favorable view of DeSantis. Other recent polls have shown Trump leading DeSantis. Trump has recognized that DeSantis appears to be his closest competitor; perhaps that’s why a recent Trump campaign email took aim at the Florida governor.
Spokesperson Steven Cheung, is quoted in a campaign email sent on Friday blasting DeSantis: “The real DeSantis record is one of misery and despair. He has left a wake of destruction all across Florida and people are hurting because he has spent more time playing public relations games instead of actually doing the hard-work needed to improve the lives of the people he represents.”
The Trump campaign email also said Florida was “among the worst states”—despite the fact that Trump resides in the state. The email outlined how expensive it is to live in the state and listed the state’s low rank in a number of categories, including saying that Florida “was the worst state in the country for resources related to elder abuse protections.”
Despite lambasting Florida in a campaign message on Friday, in a speech—delivered on the same day—Trump warmly greeted a crowd in Lee County, Florida, calling it “a great state. Great place.” The former president continued, “The great state of Florida has been among the most hotly contested swing states in the nation. But today Florida is no longer a swing state because we turned it into a red state.”
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