SHOCK POLL: DeSantis Within Single Digits of Trump in New National GOP Primary Survey

L: Seth Herald/Getty Images; R: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is within single digits of ex-President Donald Trump in a new national poll, the closest he’s been in this or any other reputable poll — and that’s before Tuesday’s bombshell testimony.

A sample of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents to a new Yahoo! News/YouGov poll were asked “Who would you rather see as the Republican nominee for President in 2024?” and given a choice between Trump and DeSantis.

Among registered voters, 45 percent prefer Trump, while 36 percent prefer DeSantis — a nine-point difference that normally wouldn’t seem very close.

But for Trump, in a reputable Republican primary poll, it’s the closest anyone has gotten. DeSantis came within about a point of Trump in a poll commissioned by never-Trumper John Bolton‘s SuperPAC, but Trump typically leads DeSantis by 20 or 30 points in GOP polls. He trailed Trump by 23 and 16 in the last two Yahoo! polls of registered voters, in January and February.

DeSantis has dominated the non-Trump candidates for a very long time. And DeSantis’s support is as deep as it is wide, relative to the non-Trump candidates. In one poll from UMass Amherst conducted by YouGov, Trump led DeSantis 55% to 20%, but DeSantis receive support from 69 percent of Republicans who listed him as either their first (20%), second (37%) or third (12%) choice.

The Yahoo! poll comes on the heels of a buzzy New Hampshire state poll showing DeSantis running ahead of Trump against President Joe Biden, and even beating Trump head-to-head in a primary matchup.

And as Yahoo’s Andrew Romano notes, this survey “was conducted from June 24 to 27 — immediately after last Thursday’s hearing but before Tuesday’s session, which has proved to be the most dramatic to date.”

Romano is referring to the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, the former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who delivered bombshell after bombshell at Tuesday’s surprise hearing.

While it’s tough to say what effect that will have on a Trump-DeSantis race, the Florida governor actually leads Trump by 4 points among respondents who “watched news coverage” of the hearings, while he trails by 11 points among those who watched live and 15 points among those who did not watch.

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