Former vice president Mike Pence, who is widely assumed to be preparing for a run for President in 2024, received a shockingly low 1% support in the 2021 CPAC presidential straw poll. President Donald Trump received 55% of the vote.
Pence is widely understood to be preparing for a 2024 run for President. After betraying President Trump, his supporters, and the U.S. Constitution on January 6, Pence has spent recent weeks attempting to ingratiate himself with Republican leaders and establishment figures, first contemplating starting his own dark money fundraising platform, and eventually winding up taking a position at the establishment-leaning Heritage Foundation.
However, it appears the Republican base – at least those who traveled to Florida and attended CPAC 2021 – are not remotely interested in seeing the former vice president return to the White House.
Pence received 1% of support in the unscientific but usually predictive CPAC straw poll. He received the same support as Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has never indicated an interest in running for office, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who failed miserably in his 2016 presidential run.
At the top of the results by a margin of 24 points is President Trump, who received 55% of the vote. With a margin so wide, many consider President Trump the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee in 2024.
1% support for Tucker Carlson in the CPAC straw poll pic.twitter.com/xBGM06mpOn
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 28, 2021
Below President Trump is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who received 21% of the vote. Trailing far behind DeSantis is South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, at 4%, indicating that voters may be willing to nominate a Republican governor who has championed personal freedom while both Democrat controlled states and many Republican states run by establishment Republicans have mandated masks and lockdowns.
Nimrata Nikki Haley, who is constantly proffered as a presidential nominee by the establishment wing of the Republican Party and its allies, despite routinely bashing both President Trump and his voters, also scored an embarrassingly low 3% of the vote.
