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President Donald Trump appears to have locked up the primary battle in the Golden State as the kick-off for next year’s Republican fight for the nomination is only a matter of weeks away.
According to a new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), Trump has captured 53 percent of Republican primary voter support in the Golden State, while Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., netted 12 percent. This gives Trump a solid 41-point lead in the GOP primary race.
Trump has steadily been increasing his lead in the California Republican primary, eclipsing Gov. DeSantis’s prospective chances of winning over Golden State GOP voters. Amid dominant primary polling data nationwide (he holds 63 percent of the national GOP vote via Morning Consult), it comes as no surprise that Trump is gaining with Republicans on the West Coast.
In June, PPIC found that Trump was holding a 29-point lead, so their most recent data illustrates a significant uptick (12-point swing) in MAGA support among Californians. This summer, Gov. DeSantis held 21 percent of support in California, so PPIC’s newest survey indicates a nine-point loss for the Florida leader in just five months.
In late September, Trump visited California at the GOP Fall Convention in Anaheim, criticizing California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s failed leftist policies. “Gavin has become Crooked Joe Biden’s TOP surrogate,” he said.
The president has often made the argument that California is much more conservative than it gets credit for. “We would WIN California in a general election if they didn’t have a rigged voting system,” he explained during his Anaheim remarks, speaking about the murky process of counting mail-in ballots.
He heralded the “biggest” crowds in California and insisted that in a “REAL election” there was “no way” he could lose the Golden State.
California’s Republican primary election will be held on March 5, 2024.