At Turning Point USA’s event over the weekend, Student Action Summit 2022, young activists gathered in Tampa, Florida, looking to gear up for the midterms in November, the 2024 election, and beyond.
Our Deputy Managing Editor, Brandon Morse watched both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speak, the former on Saturday night. Here’s just a sampling of his tweets on the former president’s remarks:
Gotta say, @TPUSA’s entrance assist game is top tier. #SAS2022 pic.twitter.com/uWLR5OwGmY
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) July 24, 2022
“I ran twice, I won twice.” – President Trump at #SAS2022
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) July 24, 2022
Trump admits he’s way off script but these are his best speeches. Asks the crowd if he should keep going to big cheers. Proceeds to dunk on Biden for not being able to go off script without it being a disaster. #SAS2022 pic.twitter.com/RhGCb9EhJQ
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) July 24, 2022
Now, in an exclusive story from Fox News, we have the results of the event’s informal straw poll of attendees, which can be seen as a snapshot in time on whom conservatives would like to see running for president in 2024. And on the primary question, there was no contest.
Tampa, Fla.– Former President Donald Trump dominated the 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit Sunday, Fox News has learned.
TPUSA polled conference attendees—youth activists from around the country—who they would vote for in 2024 if Trump decided to launch another White House run. The straw poll was sponsored by Turning Point Action, the affiliated 501(c)(4) of TPUSA.
It continues with a quote from Trump’s speech on how he views 2016 and 2020, while looking at ’24:
Teasing his own possible 2024 run, Trump said Saturday that he won the 2016 election, falsely claimed he won the 2020 election, and said, “now we may just have to do it again.”
“If we do not destroy censorship, censorship will destroy America.”
– President Trump
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) July 24, 2022
This chart showing the results of the question of if Trump decides to run in 2024:
So much for Pence 2024 pic.twitter.com/CL0MDET7Ec
— No Cap Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) July 24, 2022
As you can see in the results chart, only two of the listed candidates got notable numbers. Trump is head and shoulders above the field, with 78.7 percent, then DeSantis has 19 percent. In third place is South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Tied for fourth at 0.3 percent are former Trump CIA director and secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, former SC governor and ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, and former Vice President Mike Pence.
We also wrote about some of Cruz’s remarks at the TP USA event.
On the Democrat side, conference goers were asked whom they thought would be “the most difficult candidate for a Republican to beat.” Spoiler: Biden came in at an anemic 4.4 percent.
30.3% of attendees said California Gov. Gavin Newsom would be the most difficult for a Republican to beat; 13.6% said former First Lady Michelle Obama; 10.5% said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; 10.3% said Sen. Bernie Sanders; 7.9% said Vice President Kamala Harris; 5.9% said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
One other question in the poll shows Republicans and conservatives have some work to do, if we want to engage young people in the conservative movement, as “73.8% of conference attendees said they are not confident that the Republican Party can communicate with younger voters, while 26.2% said they are.”
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