DeSantis beats Trump in 2024 White House poll

The Florida governor has enjoyed popularity among conservatives for some controversial decisions

File Former US president Donald Trump meets with Florida Governor DeSantis about coronavirus response at the White House in Washington (REUTERS)

Florida governor Ron DeSantis outstripped former president Donald Trump as a favourite choice for 2024 presidential contender in a straw poll of conservative voters this weekend.

The Republican governor edged out Mr Trump with 74 per cent of voters approving him as a presidential candidate as against the former president’s about 71 per cent votes.

The results of the polls which were conducted online using the approval voting method were announced during the Western Conservative Summit which saw 500 people attending it and tens of thousands of watching it live.

The people attending the gathering both in-person and online were asked to vote for all the potential White House contenders that they see for 2024 out of 31 choices of both Republicans and Democrats.

The former president followed Mr DeSantis at the second spot, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo at the fourth, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

The summit is considered as the largest gathering of conservatives in the western US and has been conducting polls since 2010, according to The Newsweek.

The choices included current US president Joe Biden vice president Kamala Harris and sen. Bernie Sanders. But all top 10 candidates emerged out to be Republicans.

This comes as Mr DeSantis received a second place to Mr Trump in late February at the poll in Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – the biggest annual gathering of conservative activists and leaders.

Mr Trump took 55 per cent of votes by attendees in the straw poll conducted by CPAC and the Florida governor won 22 per cent. Even as Mr Trump was excluded from the CPAC straw poll results, Mr DeSantis’s votes jumped to 41 percent.

He was a first-time governor and ally of Trump who enjoyed popularity among conservatives with his stance against Covid-19 lockdown and restriction since the coronavirus pandemic began. He also recently signed a controversial bill banning transgender female athletes from participating in sports.

The attendees were also “asked attendees to mark any of 25 policy issues as most important to them.” The issues that topped the results are Immigration/Border Security, Election Integrity and Religious Freedom.