Former President Donald Trump beat Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) by more than 35 points in the Pray Vote Stand Summit straw poll released on Saturday.
The straw poll showed Trump with 63.9% and DeSantis with 27.3%, less than a day after both Florida men addressed the summit from the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.
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DeSantis’s speech emphasized how he did not close churches during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Sunshine State, while Trump touted plans to launch a special task force to investigate people who are “political prisoners” and have been persecuted by the Biden administration.
No other candidate received more than 3%. Former Vice President Mike Pence got 2.2%, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) got 1.9%, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy got 1.7%, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley got 1.5%. The highest-finishing Democratic presidential candidate in the poll was President Joe Biden with 0.9%.
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In the straw poll for Vice President, DeSantis led the field with 25.1%, Scott got 19.2%, Ramaswamy got 13.7%, and Haley got 12.5%. No other candidate got more than 10%, with Trump receiving only 1.2% of the poll. The pollster also says 17.4% of respondents wrote in a different candidate.
Trump is the clear front-runner in the Republican primary, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, leading his next-closest opponent, DeSantis, by more than 40 points.
