A poll conducted this week among Utah voters shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of former President Donald Trump in a head-to-head match-up for the Republican nomination for president.
DeSantis has not announced a run yet, but he is expected to enter the race in the coming months. He will be in Utah Saturday to speak at the state GOP convention.
The poll was provided to the Deseret News by Never Back Down, a political action committee that supports DeSantis. It was conducted by WPA Intelligence from April 18-20 among 504 Utah Republican primary voters, and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
In a two-way match-up, the poll showed DeSantis ahead of Trump 46% to 35%, with 19% of voters saying they are undecided.
Trump had a 56% favorability rating, according to the poll, while DeSantis had a 59% favorability rating.
A plurality of voters, 45%, said the most important factor when nominating a candidate is finding someone who can beat President Joe Biden.
The poll’s findings were similar to those of a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted in March that featured a longer slate of Republican candidates.
Among Republican voters, DeSantis was in the lead for the GOP nomination, with 31% saying they would vote for him. Another 23% of Republicans said they would support Trump. Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney came in third with 9%, while 10% of Republican voters said they would pick “another” candidate, and 15% said they didn’t know.