LAS VEGAS — Donald Trump is a polarizing incumbent retread and no longer the outsider change agent who took the Republican Party by storm seven years ago, complicating the former president’s road to the White House in 2024.
As Republicans poised to challenge Trump for the presidential nomination prepare to gather in Las Vegas for a Republican Jewish Coalition conference, GOP activists and insiders in the key early primary states say the appetite for fresh leadership is growing. The desire to move past Trump after the party’s disappointing finish in midterm elections is percolating in Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina — even Iowa, where the former president won big, twice, and has always been popular.
Trump announced his third consecutive presidential bid Tuesday evening, delivering a low-key speech before a throng of supporters at Mar-a-Lago, his residence and private social club in Palm Beach, Florida. The former president’s remarks were light on insults directed toward political enemies and only subtly touched on his unsubstantiated claims that his loss to now-President Joe Biden in 2020 was the result of massive fraud. But Trump presented nothing new.
“There are some die-hard Trump backers,” David Carney, a veteran Republican strategist in New Hampshire, said of the former president’s support in the Granite State, host of the second contest on the GOP’s nominating calendar. “But most folks are looking forward to kicking the tires and maybe test-driving some of the newer models.”
Fresh polling shows DeSantis leading Trump by more than 20 percentage points in Iowa and New Hampshire, by more than 10 points in Nevada, by more than 25 points in Florida, and by 20 points in Georgia. DeSantis also led Trump 34% to 26% in a national survey of Republican voters who participated in the midterm elections. Perhaps more ominous for the former president, DeSantis garnered higher favorable ratings: 66% “very favorable” versus Trump’s 44%.
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