ORLANDO, Fla.—Former President Donald Trump firmly sealed his grip on the Conservative Political Action Conference crowd Sunday, as CPAC’s 2022 Straw Poll showed 59 percent of CPAC attendees wanted to see him as the presidential nominee in 2024. The only candidate to slightly approach Trump’s lead was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who saw 28 percent of voters prefer him—less than half of Trump’s total, even as DeSantis made his pitch for America to the Orlando crowd Thursday. DeSantis fared better in a poll without Trump, earning an even higher percentage than Trump with 61 percent of the vote. Mike Pompeo was the next highest earner in both polls, earning two percent and six percent in each poll, respectively.
Nearly 2,600 people participated in the poll, which was conducted over the conference’s four days through the CPAC app. Attendees named election integrity as their top issue, signifying their agreement with Trump’s false claims about election fraud, and labeled “President Joe Biden‘s incompetence” as the top threat to America’s safety and national security.