President Biden slightly trails Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a theoretical 2024 matchup, according to a new poll that shows the Republican governor might be a bigger threat to the incumbent than former President Donald Trump, who was the first to jump into the GOP primary.
Mr. Biden trails Mr. DeSantis, 42%-45%, in a poll of more than 1,000 voters conducted by WPA Intelligence for the conservative Club for Growth organization.
The poll shows Mr. Trump losing to Mr. Biden, 41% to 49%, confirming previous polls that showed Mr. DeSantis outperforming Mr. Trump and posing a stiffer challenge to the Democratic president.
The poll took the unusual step of showing likely voters photos of Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis and asking them to type their names or click a button saying they don’t know.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump were recognized easily, with 98% of voters recognizing each man, while only 64% readily identified Mr. DeSantis.
Despite the Florida governor’s relatively low name recognition, he fared the best in hypothetical matchups — though his lead over Mr. Biden would be considered a statistical tie in the WPA poll.
DOCUMENT: Club for Growth poll
Mr. DeSantis romped to reelection in November, while some of Mr. Trump’s handpicked GOP candidates suffered losses, leading some conservatives to say it’s time to embrace a new leader of the party.
Mr. DeSantis hasn’t said whether he will run in 2024, but he is widely considered the most prominent GOP alternative to Mr. Trump, who jumped into the race in November and is expected to ramp up public events this month.
David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, spoke favorably of Mr. DeSantis in comments about the poll to NBC News. “As more people start to recognize DeSantis, his face, there’s a lot of upside for him to grow and get stronger,” he said.
The WPA poll was conducted Jan. 2-8 among 1,035 likely voters, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.