A straw poll taken at the end of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference may have appeared to be good news for disgraced one-term former president Donald Trump, but a GOP strategist said Sunday the poll actually contains a “horrible result” for the failed ex-president.
Trump gave the keynote address at CPAC on Sunday and garnered 62% worth of support in the straw poll, but that should concern him, according to Republican strategist Susan Del Percio.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Alex Witt Show,” Del Percio was asked by the host:
“Do you sense this is a party that is ready to move on? What lies ahead for Republicans who want to challenge Trump?”
Del Percio replied:
“Sixty-two percent of CPAC in a straw poll it is a horrible result for Donald Trump. I mean this has been dubbed TPAC; this is Donald Trump’s show, and you can only get 62% of his own people.”
“That is not to say his power over the party is there,” she added. “I read something very interesting in I believe it was Politico or Axios over the weekend. Donald Trump met with the state Republican leadership of Nevada recently at Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump is playing the campaign strategy that all he needs to do is get 35 percent and beat everyone else and it is winner take all.”
Del Percio concluded her comments by noting, “He still does have that grip and if the other thing that stuck out to me is listening to Governor [Chris] Sununu and Nikki Haley, they come from two different ideas of what the new generation is and I am afraid that Nikki Haley’s new generation of leadership, which is a new generation of hate, as you just showed, is where the party currently is.”
Trump is also facing the prospect of being indicted in multiple jurisdictions, and while he vows not to drop out of the 2024 race if he’s charged with crimes, his poll numbers will likely take a major hit if he is.
