Donald Trump Decimates The Competition In Conservative Conference Straw Poll, Respondents Give Surprising Response On VP Pick

On Sunday, the results from the Turning Point USA Action Conference were released with 45th President Donald Trump dominating his Republican competition as well as a few surprises from the conferencegoers.

According to the poll, 85.7 percent of participants wanted to see Donald Trump as the party's nominee in 2024. Meanwhile, an interesting 7.8 percent wanted businessman Perry Johnson as the nominee, a shocking 4.3 percent wanted Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as the nominee, and two percent wanted businessman Vivek Ramaswamy as the GOP nominee.

What is even more intriguing, however, is who the conferencegoers chose as their second choice candidate. Amongst those responses, 51.2 percent said they would want Ramaswamy as their second choice, 21.4 percent said Donald Trump, 13.5 percent responded with Gov. DeSantis, and 5.8 percent told the poster they would vote for Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). All other candidates received less than three percent support.

Other notable answers from the conferencegoers included who should be the party's nominee for vice president. From among those polled, former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R-AZ) secured 30.8 percent support, 24 percent said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), 22.7 percent said Vivek Ramaswamy, 6.9 percent wanted Sen. Tim Scott, and 5.2 percent wanted Gov. DeSantis. 

In addition to who should be on the 2024 ballot, the pollster, Trafalgar Group, asked the participants whether they are excited for the RNC debates to which 59.4 percent said they were excited and 40.6 percent said they were not excited.

The pollster also found that these GOP voters did not have confidence in the RNC's ability to get out the vote in 2024 with 65.6 percent saying they did not have confidence in the party while only 34.4 percent said they believed the RNC was going to do well with GOTV operations.

Other questions asked included:

• Do you plan on donating money to the RNC? 22.7 percent said yes and 77.3 percent answered no.
• Do you think it's time for the GOP to embrace early voting and vote banking (at least and until the party has the political power to restrict certain low trust,
• insecure voting methods such as ballot harvesting, universal mail-in, no excuse absentee, drop boxes etc.)? 89.7 percent said yes and 10.3 percent answered no.
• Do you support US involvement in the war in Ukraine? 4.2 percent said yes and 95.8 percent answered no.

In addition to these questions, the pollster also asked what were respondents' most pressing issues in 2024. Amongst the respondents, 23.9 percent said the southern border, 17.8 percent said the economy and inflation, 13.3 percent said voting integrity, 10 percent said gender ideology and kids, and 8.9 percent said the weaponization of the justice system.

This poll represents how the Republican grassroots are feeling and it is becoming increasingly clear what candidates are fighting for them and what issues matter to get their vote in 2024.

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