Former President Donald Trump Won CPAC Straw Poll
ORLANDO (CBSMiami/CNN) - An informal straw poll on Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference revealed former President Donald Trump was the top pick of who they would support in a GOP primary for president in 2024.
Among attendees, 59 percent said they would vote for Trump if the 2024 Republican primary were held today.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in second with 28 percent of the vote in the poll. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came in a distant third with 2 percent of the vote.
The straw poll, which covers conference attendees, is not a scientific survey and does not represent the larger GOP electorate.
While Trump breezed to the top of the potential Republican field, it was by a smaller margin than when CPAC conducted a similar straw poll last summer. During that informal poll in July 2021, Trump topped the GOP field with support from 70 percent of conference attendees, compared to 21 percent who selected DeSantis last year.
If Trump decides not to run in 2024, DeSantis emerged as the top pick for CPAC attendees this week.
In a Republican primary without Trump, DeSantis picked up support from 61 percent of CPAC attendees, followed by Pompeo and Donald Trump Jr., who each picked up 6 percent support.
Both Trump and DeSantis addressed the four-day conference of conservatives earlier this week. But in an indication of their increasingly fraught relationship, neither Trump nor DeSantis mentioned the other during their speeches.
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