OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump continues to be in demand politically and in ways that seem to defy belief. Hilariously enough, Trump actually won an election last week for an office in which he wasn’t even running.
Trump won a seat on the Hubbard Rural Fire Protection District board in Oregon, according to a local report. “Trump beat out four other candidates to win a seat on the board,” the Statesman Journal noted.
The outlet explained further: “Trump and four other people were tied for the position with write-in votes following the May 16 election. They each had two votes. The tiebreaker was a roll of the dice. The fire district covers seven square miles between Woodburn and Aurora and serves about 5,000 residents. According to the district, it has six paid staff members – two of whom are seasonal through a state grant – and 26 volunteers.”
“The candidate who won the dice roll off was Donald Trump and because he doesn’t live or own property in the district, the next step would be to determine if either of the other two candidates who won the dice roll are interested,” Hubbard Fire Chief Michael Kahrmann noted, according to the local outlet.
The Statesman Journal went on to point out that normally, there are enough people running to fill open seats. This time around, however, there were three board seats available, but no one filed to run for the third one, so the race came down to write-in candidates.
“Of the 20 people who received write-in votes in the race, five received two votes: Jerry Cox, Rocky Sherwood, Paula Smith, Bob Banks and Trump,” the outlet reported.
Trump was already leading the 2024 GOP presidential field by a large margin, but it appears to have grown following his indictment by the Justice Department, which his most likely Democratic opponent is currently leading.
According to a new CBS News poll, the former president dominated the Republican primary with 61 percent of support, leading his opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by a significant margin of 38 points.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (SC) secured third place with just 4 percent support, edging out former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley by one point.
CBS News added:
Republican primary voters say they’re far more concerned that Donald Trump’s indictment is politically motivated than his alleged conduct being a national security risk – and there’s no evidence it’s hurt his status as the clear front-runner for the 2024 nomination, at least not yet. He remains well ahead of rivals in both consideration and vote choice.
In fact, most Republican primary voters would not generally consider him keeping the alleged documents with nuclear systems or military plans to be a national security risk, in and of itself.
Most explicitly ruled out the charges announced in the indictment changing their views about Mr. Trump. Rather than being disqualifying in their eyes, even if he’s ultimately convicted of a crime in the matter, they overwhelmingly feel he should still be able to serve as president again.
CBS News Poll: Trump Posts Biggest Lead Yet Over DeSantis
Trump — 61% (+38)
DeSantis — 23%
T. Scott — 4%
Pence — 4%
Haley — 3%
Ramaswamy — 1%
Hutchinson — 1%
Burgum — 1%
Elder — 1%
Christie — 1%CBS Poll (B+) | 06/07-10 | n=586https://t.co/V076JVS4Iw pic.twitter.com/pQjIqvYCV4
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) June 11, 2023
Also, per Breitbart News, the former president won the Western Conservative Summit straw poll last month, which was roughly a day after he got the news he was under a 37-count indictment for his handling of classified documents.
Trump won the straw poll with 40.3 percent versus Ron DeSantis with 35.8 percent of support, the outlet noted.
In his first campaign event following his indictment, Trump claimed that his polling numbers and fundraising are both “through the roof.”
During a rally where he addressed the Georgia Republican Party, Trump said the charges were political in nature and that President Joe Biden was behaving like a Soviet-style dictator targeting his political enemies.
