Gov. Ron DeSantis keeps saying he has no plans to run for President in 2024, but one poll says he’d win the popular vote in a landslide against the current incumbent.
A survey released Thursday by Rasmussen Reports shows the Florida Governor commanding 46% support against 35% for Democrat Joe Biden. An additional 11% said they’d vote for “someone else,” and 2% said they wouldn’t vote.
DeSantis has made bold culture war plays since Biden’s election in 2020, with moves against liberal priorities ranging from so-called critical race theory to banning transgender athletes from scholastic women’s sports. This survey suggests governing to the right wasn’t an issue for those polled.
DeSantis commanded 50% support among men, 14 points over Biden. But women also preferred DeSantis, with 43% support compared to just 34% for the current President.
Party splits were favorable for DeSantis.
Seventeen percent of Democrats said they preferred DeSantis to Biden, with just 8% of Republicans wanting four more years of the incumbent. Independent voters surged to DeSantis, with 43% backing him compared to 27% for Biden.
Voters over 40 years old substantially preferred DeSantis to Biden. The Florida Governor enjoyed a staggering 25-point lead among voters 40 to 64 years of age, and an 11-point edge with senior citizens. Biden did lead with voters under 40 years of age, pulling 38% support against 29% for DeSantis in the hypothetical matchup.
The ethnic breakdown was similarly unfavorable for Biden. DeSantis had a predictably massive lead with White voters, with 53% to 33% for Biden. DeSantis also was up six points with Hispanic voters. Barely 50% of Black voters, meanwhile, said they backed Biden, with Republican DeSantis pulling 23% support among that demographic group.
Former President Donald Trump was also matched against Biden, and performed marginally better than DeSantis, with a 14-point lead against the Democrat who defeated him in 2020.
In a 2024 rematch, 73% of Democrats would vote for Biden while 89% of Republicans would vote for Trump. Among independent voters, 48% would vote for Trump and 27% would vote for Biden, while 17% would vote for someone else.
One caveat: The survey of 1,004 likely voters was in the field from Apr. 28 to May 2, meaning it would have been conducted before the leak of a draft ruling in an abortion case under U.S. Supreme Court consideration, a potentially meaningful change in voter perceptions given that ruling could overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that recognized reproductive rights federally.