If Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is supposed to be Donald Trump without the rough edges, then suburban women just don’t believe it, according to an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com.
It shows that while the former president loses to President Joe Biden by seven points in this crucial group, DeSantis is also five points behind.
The almost lifelong Republican Cindy Lackey thinks she knows why.
DeSantis started out as a moderate Republican, she told DailyMail.com from her home in Parkland, Florida, before trying to outsmart Trump with culture war battles that pander to the far right but alienate her and her friends.
“I have a lot of friends who are teachers and principals, and in the elementary schools, they feel chained to what they can do in terms of inclusion,” said the 53-year-old mother of three.
A new poll from DailyMail.com/JL Partners shows President Joe Biden is clearing among female voters against potential Republican challengers. He has an advantage in suburban women, a key sector both sides will fight for in 2024
Cindy Lackey lives in Florida and has seen Governor Ron DeSantis up close. She says he has alienated women like her with his culture wars and anti-abortion stance
“I don’t think Trump would have done that. Honestly, I don’t think he would have fought the same battle DeSantis did, alienating so many people in his own state.”
The poll of 1,000 likely voters nationwide, conducted by JL Partners, shows Biden has strong support among women in general and with suburban women winning against a range of possible Republican candidates.
The president beats Pence by five points and Chris Christie by eight points in that group.
Analysts and strategists have long focused on them as one of the key, shifting voices at a time when Democrats control cities and Republicans control rural districts.
And the outlook isn’t good for the GOP no matter which candidate they choose, according to James Johnson, co-founder of Republican pollsters JL Partners
“Suburban women are Biden’s stronghold,” he said.
“Despite the rest of the country turning away from the current president, women in the suburbs still prefer Biden. This isn’t just a Trump issue, either: Every major Republican nominee struggles with this group.
“Whether it’s abortion, schools, or inflation, the GOP needs a strategy to reach these key voters: Getting away from Trump isn’t enough to win them over.”
The battle for the Republican nomination is currently a race between Trump and DeSantis. Florida governor supporters say he has a better chance in the 2024 general election
A new poll for DailyMail.com shows that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is currently best placed to run against President Joe Biden in the 2024 election
DeSantis is second only to Trump in polls of Republican primary voters. And his supporters hope his charismatic wife and family will endear him to women who have said they object to Trump’s abusive behavior and locker room language since his “grab ’em by the p****” remark surfaced in 2016.
Florida’s governor has made many laws to limit what can be discussed in classrooms about sexual orientation and gender identity.
And a hard line on abortion is also an important part of the DeSantis message. Just before launching his campaign, Florida’s governor signed into law a law prohibiting termination of pregnancies after six weeks of pregnancy. (However, it has yet to go into effect due to an ongoing legal challenge to a 15-week ban.)
Pence, an evangelical Christian, also takes a hard line.
On Friday, at the Faith & Freedom conference in Washington, he called on all Republican candidates to support a ban on abortions before 15 weeks “as a minimum national standard.”
But Trump has already warned that the issue is costing Republicans at the ballot box, even though it was his selection of conservative Supreme Court justices that brought about the end of the Roe v Wade protections on abortion.
Former vice president is five points behind Biden in the poll, while former New Jersey governor is eight points behind despite occupying more centrist territory
Lackey, who works in healthcare IT recruiting, is the kind of woman Republicans need to win back.
In 2016, shocked by Trump’s rise to power, she wrote on behalf of Senator Mitt Romney on her ballot. In 2020, she did the once unthinkable and volunteered for the Biden campaign.
She even registered as a Democrat so she could have a say in the party’s primaries last year.
Now she’s looking for a conservative to get the country back on track.
She said she wanted to learn more about Senator Tim Scott’s campaign and was drawn to his message that the country’s bitter divisions needed healing.
But the focus on abortion among candidates left her and her friends cold, she said.
Lackey said she wanted to learn more about Senator Tim Scott’s campaign, drawn to his message that the country’s bitter divisions needed healing
“A lot of women who are strong Republican women don’t like what’s going on with women’s rights to that extent,” she said.
“Again, giving in to the extreme right, the religious right… is making policy for that core group of the religious right.”
She lives in Florida and has seen DeSantis up close. And is unimpressed by his gripping battles with Disney and teachers.
A candidacy from Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney, she said, would have a better chance of winning over her and her friends.
“If the Republicans could just put forward a moderate candidate, I think they would take out Biden, and they would win over all the people in the middle,” she said.