Vice President Vance emerged as the clear favorite to be President Trump‘s successor in the MAGA movement in a new straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday.
Sixty-one percent of CPAC’s 1,022 attendees said they would support Vance as the future GOP standard bearer. Twelve percent said they would support Trump’s former adviser and right-wing media personality Steve Bannon, while seven percent said the same about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s UN ambassador nominee Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) each received three percent support. Donald Trump Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is expected to launch a gubernatorial bid in Ohio next week, all got two percent support.
Trump fires top US general in unprecedented Pentagon shakeup
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders (R), Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R ), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump’s former GOP presidential primary rival Nikki Haley all received one percent support. Four percent said they were undecided.
CPAC’s straw poll was conducted by Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin.
The same poll unsurprisingly showed Trump with a 99 percent approval rating with the staunchly pro-Trump crowd, with 95 percent saying they strongly approved.
Vance was the first speaker at this year’s CPAC, while Trump is set to close the annual gathering on Saturday.
Earlier this month Trump told Fox News declined to name Vance as his automatic successor, saying it was “too early.” However, Trump praised his vice president as “very capable” in the interview.
