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In a hypothetical presidential matchup, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis would garner more support against President Joe Biden than former President Donald Trump would, a new poll from Marquette University finds.
Forty-five percent of registered voters preferred DeSantis, versus 38% of registered voters who preferred Biden in a hypothetical matchup between the two.
In a hypothetical contest between Biden and Trump, the two were even, each gaining 40% of registered voters' preference.
Just among Republican voters and independents who lean Republican, DeSantis had a slightly higher favorability rating. Seventy-one percent of those voters said they have a favorable view of DeSantis, while 70% said they had a favorable view of Trump.
Among that same group of voters, ten percent said they had an unfavorable view of DeSantis while 28% had an unfavorable view of Trump.
Republican voters and Republican-leaning independent voters also preferred DeSantis as the eventual Republican presidential nominee over Trump by 28 percentage points, as 64% of this group of voters preferred DeSantis as the nominee, compared to 36% who said they preferred Trump to be the nominee.
Among Democratic registered voters and independent voters who lean Democrat, Biden had the highest favorability rating, with 83% of those voters viewing him favorably and just 16% of them viewing him unfavorably.
The figure with the next-highest favorability rating among Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent. Seventy-five percent of voters in this group view him favorably, while 14% view him unfavorably.
Looking ahead to 2024, Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents were almost split on whether Biden should run for president in 2024. Forty-nine percent of this group said they would like to see Biden run again, while 51% said they did not.
This poll was conducted from Jan. 9 through Jan. 20 and included 1,000 adults, 876 of whom were registered voters. The margin of error is +/- 3.8 percentage points among all adults and +/- 4 percentage points among registered voters.