Poll: Tennessee Republicans favor Gov. DeSantis over Former President Trump

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis currently leads former President Trump by 13 points among Tennessee Republicans in a GOP straw poll. 

The Vanderbilt University poll, released Wednesday, found that 54 percent of Republican voters would support DeSantis and 41 percent would support Trump in a hypothetical 2024 presidential matchup. 

The poll showed a sizeable division in Republicans’ support based on whether they expressed more loyalty toward the “Make America Great Again movement” or toward the GOP. Six in 10 Republicans who indicated their allegiance is more to the movement said they would support Trump, while 66 percent of those who said the opposite prefer DeSantis.

Respondents were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of repeating the 2020 presidential election with Trump against Biden. Thirty-six percent of those surveyed wanted Trump to run again and 22 percent wanted President Biden to run again.

Josh Clinton, a political science professor and co-director of the poll, said of their findings: “Our results show that the Republican Party is clearly divided, and Republicans are trying to figure out who they are and which issues they want to prioritize.”

The poll was conducted between Nov. 8 – Nov. 28 and surveyed a total of 1,180 registered Tennessee voters. The margin of error was 3.4 points.

This is not the only poll which has shown DeSantis leading ahead of Trump. A recent USA Today-Suffolk University poll found DeSantis led by 23 points and a Wall Street Journal poll showed him leading by 14 points in.