Trump surges to 13-point lead over DeSantis: poll

Former President Trump has flipped the field against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a possible 2024 GOP primary matchup, surging to a 13-point lead according to a new Wall Street Journal poll.

Trump trailed DeSantis by 14 points as recently as December, but Trump’s solid lead now points to signs that DeSantis’s not-yet-announced campaign may be losing momentum.

In a head-to-head matchup, GOP voters said they would back Trump 51 percent to 38 for DeSantis, the poll found. Even in a more crowded field, with a poll that includes other announced candidates like former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump still takes 48 percent of the vote to DeSantis’s 24 percent support.

There, Haley took 5 percent support and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) 3 percent. All other candidates received 2 percent support or less and 13 percent were undecided.

DeSantis has not officially announced a 2024 run, but he has effectively run a shadow candidacy for months including high-profile fundraising events and a national speaking tour.