Opinion | Nearly Half The GOP Base Is Looking For A Trump Alternative, But The Field Has To Winnow Down – By Ben Shapiro (Daily Wire) / Oct 4, 2023
At least 45 to 50% of the Republican base in the early primaries and caucuses does not want Donald Trump as their 2024 candidate or would be open to another candidate. Real Clear Politics polling average shows 44% of the Republican base is not in love with Trump.
Whoever is running against Trump is going to have to stop with the notion that he will just fall off the road somewhere. In 2016, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio assumed Trump’s support base would simply collapse at a certain point, and then they would just walk into the nomination. That didn’t happen; they ended up fighting each other, and John Kasich stayed in to make sure Trump was the nominee.
The person best positioned to take on Trump is Ron DeSantis. And now, he’s training his fire on Trump. He is making the argument that: (1) he has a proven track record in Florida; (2) he has not lost to President Biden and Trump has; (3) he won both presidential debates; and (4) he’s the only candidate who’s running double digits against Trump in the primaries.
Let the two of us battle it out, DeSantis is saying. If Trump wins, Trump wins. But maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll have a tough time defending his record against the more conservative DeSantis. Maybe he’ll look easily distractible. Maybe his volatility will hurt him against the more staid Florida governor.
