Ron DeSantis leads Texas GOP presidential Primary poll — but it’s without Donald Trump

Texas strength for Florida's Governor in new poll.

The expectation is former President Donald Trump will soon launch his 2024 presidential campaign. But if he doesn’t, Texas Republicans keep saying they’d prefer Gov. Ron DeSantis to run.

The most recent survey, released July 12 by the Defend Texas Liberty PAC and conducted by CWS Polling, shows 56% of Republican voters would back DeSantis in a field absent the former President. His closest competition is a favorite son, Sen. Ted Cruz, who eked out just 12% support. Coming in third: “Undecided” with 10%.

No other name tracked reached double digits.

These results jibe with the May polling by the same outfit. Without Trump, DeSantis was the choice of 56% of respondents, well ahead of Texans Cruz (with just 14% support) and Gov. Greg Abbott, who had just 10% backing. All other names were in single digits.

While DeSantis continues to maintain a strong majority in a Trump-less field, it is notable that the former President continues to struggle to get majority support in Texas polling — when DeSantis is in the field.

Trump drew 45% support, ahead of DeSantis (26%). Just 9% of voters surveyed were undecided, good for third place; other names were even farther back.

These results also fall in line with May polling. Trump mustered just 45% support, with DeSantis garnering 28%, up a full eight points from April polling from this same group. Ambassador Nikki Haley was a distant third, with 7% support, and Cruz and Abbott falling even further behind.

CWS Polling continues to assess DeSantis’ appeal, and Florida’s Governor performs well. A February release promoted a survey with DeSantis “crushing” the Texas Governor in a hypothetical head-to-head Primary matchup.

It continues a week of polls showing DeSantis strong against Trump. A poll of a hypothetical one-on-one matchup in Florida saw DeSantis up by double digits. And a widely discussed New York Times national poll showed Trump failing to get a majority, a result which led Trump to issue a statement decrying “fake” polling.