Former President Donald Trump holds a definitive lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in a hypothetical Republican primary matchup among voters in New York State, a Siena College poll revealed Monday.
Trump won 52 percent support, while DeSantis earned 27 percent, with 18 percent selecting someone else. Trump’s overall lead over DeSantis was 25 points.
Notably, the poll found Trump’s lead over DeSantis is even stronger among working class voters. Fifty-eight percent of those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 supported Trump. Just 26 percent supported the governor. Among those making less than $50,000, Trump’s lead expanded to 38 points (54-16 percent).
Trump’s lead began to narrow among voters with incomes more than $100,000 to five points (42-37 percent).
While DeSantis did better with white-collar Republicans, the polling shows he also performed greater with moderate Republicans, though Trump still held a considerable lead (40-24 percent). Among conservative Republicans, Trump held a sizable 54-30 percent lead.
“For New York Republicans, New York is unquestionably Trump Country,” House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told Breitbart News about the poll’s findings. “We are proud to support Trump to win the 2024 Republican primary in New York and the 2024 general election across America”:
The poll surveyed 802 New York State registered voters from March 19 – 22 with a 4.6-point margin of error.
The survey comes as DeSantis has begun to engage with Trump in back and forth attacks. In an interview with Piers Morgan last week, DeSantis gave the strongest indication yet about his 2024 intentions: “I have what it takes to be president, and I can beat Biden.”
While highlighting his inability to speak about alleged hush money payments, DeSantis joked about one of Trump’s nicknames for him.
“I don’t know how to spell the ‘Sanctimonious one,’” he said. “I don’t really know what it means, but I kinda like it. It’s long. It’s got a lot of vowels. We’ll go with that; that’s fine.”
Some pollsters believe DeSantis might have made a mistake by returning attacks against Trump. Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States, told Breitbart News Saturday that recent polling support that analysis.
“I thought it showed weakness for him to take a swipe at Donald Trump here,” Meckler estimated. “What’s been serving DeSantis has kinda been just ignoring the attacks from Trump, and I think you could have showed real leadership by just aggressively attacking the prosecution, not going after Donald Trump at all. I understand on a personal level why it’s probably frustrating to him, but I don’t think it was a good political move, and the polls show that’s definitely not a good political move.”
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