Former President Donald Trump won the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll for the second straight year, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in second.
Trump garnered 59% support in the poll of 2,574 attendees, and DeSantis received 28%. No other candidate received more than 1.5% support. The poll was conducted Sunday through an app created by the polling firm McLaughlin & Associates, which also served as the Trump campaign’s pollster in the 2020 presidential election.
The #CPAC2022 STRAW POLL l is out and among attendees, 2024 is Trump and DeSantis’ race to lose pic.twitter.com/ta0kLEyHXQ
— Brittany Shepherd (@brittanys) February 27, 2022
Support for both Trump and DeSantis was up from the 2021 conference, when the two men received 55% and 21% support, respectively. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who finished third with 4% support in 2021, received 1.2% support in this year’s poll.
In a poll without Trump as an option, DeSantis finished first with 61.4%, Pompeo received 6.3% and Donald Trump Jr. received 5.9%. (RELATED: DeSantis Appears To Be A Popular Lead For 2024, Straw Poll Shows)
With a hypothetically Trump out of the running, FL GOV RON DESANTIS leads #CPAC2022 straw poll runaway leader, with Pompeo following at a mere 6 pts pic.twitter.com/mvYmgH61M5
— Brittany Shepherd (@brittanys) February 27, 2022
The CPAC straw poll has not historically been predictive of the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul winning in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz winning in 2016. However, other polls have shown that Trump would be a favorite in a 2024 GOP primary.
No candidate has declared for the 2024 primary, although Trump and those close to him have repeatedly teased a third bid for the White House. Trump said in June 2021 that he had made a decision on running again, but walked that confirmation back in September. He has also suggested that Federal Election Commission guidelines and tax laws have prevented him from declaring early, telling the Daily Wire in May 2021, “for campaign finance reasons, you really can’t do it too early because it becomes a whole different thing.”
Former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr., told CPAC attendees Thursday that “reclaiming the White House and returning President Trump to the Oval Office” is “step two” of a plan to stop Democrats from “transforming America in their far left woke image.”
“I pray about this and I am confident that if we are lucky to have President Trump make that sacrifice again then he will defeat Joe Biden,” she said.