Former President Donald Trump has a 13-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a hypothetical 2024 GOP primary, a new Rasmussen Reports poll finds.
In the survey released Friday, the former president leads DeSantis with 45% of likely Republican voters supporting Trump to 32% supporting the governor.
Another 14% said they would support a different candidate.
That lead drops to just 4 points, however, when the poll extends to all likely voters, with Trump leading 30% to 26%.
A plurality of those surveyed, 36%, said they would vote for a different candidate altogether.
The poll was conducted with 900 likely voters by Pulse Opinion Research, with a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points, according to the organization.
The GOP primary matchup, however, remains strictly hypothetical with only Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley formally in the race.
DeSantis has an edge among unaffiliated voters with 30% saying they would support his bid against Trump, who has 24% support in that group, according to the polling.
He also has a 4-point advantage with self-identified conservative voters over Trump 41%-37%, according to the poll.
According to the survey, a majority of voters, 52%, have a favorable view of DeSantis, including 33% with a "very favorable" view, compared to 41% who see him unfavorably, including 31% seeing him "very unfavorably."
Most of those surveyed, 42%, say he should not run for office in 2024, compared to 35% who want to see him in the race.
Just 24% of Democrats think DeSantis should run in 2024, with 54% saying he should not run.
Voters with incomes of more than $200,000 per year support DeSantis, while those earning $50,000 per year oppose his candidacy.
A similar Quinnipiac University poll Thursday also gives Trump a 6-point advantage in a race with DeSantis 42%-36%.
"They are either officially in the hunt or their names are in the GOP conversation, but the early horse race comes down to just two names," Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said in a press release announcing the findings Thursday.
That poll also found 54% of registered voters with an unfavorable view of President Joe Biden, 57% with an unfavorable view of Trump, but just 35% seeing DeSantis in an unfavorable light.
That poll was taken with 1,580 U.S. voters between Feb. 9-14 and has a margin of error of +/-2.5 percentage points.
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