At a Turning Point USA conference, Donald Trump dominated a straw poll.
Nearly 86% of attendees for the Tuning Point Action conference in Florida supported the former President. Meanwhile, all other competitors posted in single digits. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, still widely viewed as Trump’s great competitor for the GOP nomination, came in third place.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a part-time Longboat Key resident, unapologetically cheered the survey results.
“The straw poll demonstrates that President Trump remains the single most dominant force among the conservative grassroots,” Kirk said. “All the attacks against him have seemingly made him even stronger and more popular among the conservative faithful.”
Trump’s presidential campaign noted this is the second straw poll at a major conservative conference where he came out on top. In March, Trump won a similar poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with 62%. There, DeSantis showed up in second place, as the preference for 20% of CPAC attendees.
But the Turning Point straw poll proved far more lop-sided. In fact, the closest competitor behind Trump turned out to be Perry Johnson, a Michigan business who announced a longshot bid in March. Johnson received almost 8% of votes cast.
DeSantis, Governor of the state hosting the Turning Point conference, proved the favorite of just over 4% of attendees.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy polled at 2%.
Four other candidates — South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Texas businessman Ryan Binkley, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — all received votes, but none enough to poll at even a tenth of a percent.
Trump, himself a Palm Beach County resident, gave a speech at the conference on Saturday evening, where he attacked DeSantis by name.
“We are totally dominating DeSantis right here in the state of Florida. So we want him to get home and take care of insurance,” Trump said.
DeSantis declined an invitation to speak at the conference. Both Johnson and Ramaswamy did speak at the event. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez spoke at the convention on Sunday but failed to get any votes in the straw poll.
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