Gov Rrrrroooonn DeSantis Beats Trump In Presidential Straw Poll

It’s happening.

According to the sourcelink, conservatives at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado gave Gov Ron DeSantis 71% of the vote in the GOP 2024 presidential nomination strawpoll this past weekend.  Trump got 67% comparatively.

Y’all know where I stand on this.  I’ve been very very very very very very very clear that DeSantis is my pick.  And no, that doesn’t mean I’m a Never Trumper, which I’ve been accused of being a gazillion times by morons who don’t seem to realize that “Never Trumper” means never voting for Trump.  But I HAVE voted for him.  Twice, even.  And I’d even do it a third time if the match-up was him and any Democrat in the hunt right now. So that pretty much disqualifies me from being a “Never Trumper” by definition.

But do I hope Trump runs?  Absolutely not.  I emphatically hope he doesn’t, in fact. Not just because he’s one of the most divisive figures in modern politics, but also because of his age, because of his numerous self-inflicted wounds, and because I think he could be far more useful to the GOP outside of the Oval Office.

Why WOULDN’T conservatives want DeSantis as their frontrunner?  It makes no sense to me.  He is every bit the fighter that Trump is/was, his results for the state of Florida are unobjectively fantastic by nearly every measure, and he doesn’t come with the loose lips that often got Trump into so much trouble.  DeSantis is also objectively more conservative than Trump is/was. Would the media go after him just as hard as they did Trump?  Sure.  They already have.  And DeSantis fights back with just the right amount of snark, but without the unnecessary ego.

The biggest reason I don’t want Trump to run, though, is because he’s the one person I think Joe Biden or whoever Democrats end up with as their nominee could beat. He’s the one person SO HATED by the Left, that he could actually cause them to turn out to vote against him the way no other GOP candidate could.  Right now, Democrats have nothing to run on except failures.  The GOP should run away with the presidential election easily.  So why in the world would we test our luck by putting up someone that is SO hated, that it could rile up people who might otherwise sit out this election due to general dissatisfaction with their own party?

All that said, it’s not a certainty that DeSantis even WANTS to be president.  And if he doesn’t run, there are still other Republicans who intend to.  Mike Pompeo, for instance.  Another tough-as-nails choice.

The strawpoll in CO’s third place was Ted Cruz, but he was waaaaay behind DeSantis and Trump at only 28%. DeSantis also beat Trump in a strawpoll in Wisconsin last month.

The fact is – no other GOP candidate even comes close.  And so it’ll be a real shame if DeSantis opts not to run.  I’m probably gonna have a similar reaction as I did when Mitch Daniels bowed out.  I cried and ate donuts for three straight days.

#DeSantis2024