Weekly Straw Poll: Vance Takes Slight Hit as Support for Massie, DeSantis, Third Trump Term Rises
Vice President J.D. Vance maintained his strong lead in The Western Journal’s latest straw poll for readers, although other potential candidates have seen some interesting change in support.
The Western Journal’s straw poll has been running for several weeks now, asking the same question each week: If the 2028 Republican primary were held today, who would you support?
(If you want to have your voice heard, submit your preference at StrawPoll.US. You are limited to one vote per week.)
The latest results included 12,658 responses and showed Vance’s strong dominance taking a slight hit for the third week in a row.
Vance’s support in the straw poll conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 stood at 62.1 percent, then fell to 53.5 percent the following week, and then to 50.1 percent the week after that (last week).
In this week’s straw poll, conducted from Oct. 20-26, support for Vance as the 2028 Republican candidate ticked down yet again to 47.8 percent.
That lead remains strong, however.
The top vote-getters are as follows:
Vice President Vance with 47.8 percent, President Donald Trump with 14.4 percent, Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie with 12.1 percent, the “other” category with 11 percent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio with 9.2 percent, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 5.5 percent.
Candidates with less than 2.0 percent of the vote were grouped into the “other” category. That list includes Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Movement among the other potential candidates on the list has been interesting.
Support for a third term for President Trump — who constitutionally cannot run in 2028 and recently said he would not even seek to run as vice president — fell by 1 percent from last week’s straw poll.
Massie saw a slight gain in support, from 10.4 percent to 12.1 percent.
Rubio also took a small hit, falling from his strong 10.4 percent of support last week to 9.2 percent this week.
Lastly, the man many would describe as Trump’s key rival in the 2024 Republican primary, DeSantis, saw a slight increase in support, from 4.8 percent to 5.5 percent.
Although the numbers fluctuate from week to week, it remains clear that a majority of The Western Journal’s straw poll participants still see Vance as the clear choice for 2028.
On the Democratic side of the aisle, many questions remain as to who a potential Republican candidate will have to face off against in the next presidential election.
A recent poll from the University of New Hampshire showed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as the leading candidate, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez following closely behind.
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