Trump Wins CPAC Straw Poll

Who does CPAC want to win the presidential election in 2024? The same person who won it in 2016. Former President Trump on Sunday won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, with 55% of respondents saying that if the election were held today, they'd vote for him. Coming in second, per the Hill, was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 21%, followed by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem with 4%. Per the New York Times, just 68% of respondents said they wanted Trump to run again, while a whopping 95% said they wanted the GOP to continue to advance his policies and agenda. The poll results were announced just before Trump's big speech.

The secret ballots were submitted by a group of current and former elected officials, activists, writers, and others—generally representative of the Republican Party's far-right wing, the Times notes, meaning attendees were likely to be disproportionately Trump fans. Indeed, his approval rating among CPAC attendees was 97%, and a massive 87% of respondents said they strongly approve of him. CPAC straw polls don't have a great record in terms of actually predicting future nominees; Sen. Rand Paul won three consecutive years before Election 2016, and his presidential campaign that time around only made it through the Iowa caucuses. (Read about Trump's CPAC speech here. The AP says there were a lot of lies in it; read about those here.)