OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has easily won the Colorado Republican Centennial Dinner Presidential Straw Poll for 2023.
With a whopping 87 percent of the vote, Trump won first place. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis finished in second place with a meager six percent.
“Colorado Republicans spoke loudly and clearly that President Trump is the frontrunner and the man to beat. The Party congratulates President Trump and looks forward to the grassroots America-First energy he will continue to bring to our base heading into 2024,” Party Chairman Dave Williams said.
Trent Leisy, an America First congressional candidate seeking to unseat Representative Ken Buck (R-CO), was present in the audience. Buck recently declared that he will not seek re-election in 2024 due to Trump’s control over the party.
“This isn’t a rare occurrence for President Trump. Trump wins every real poll by a landslide,” Leisy said in an interview. “I announced my campaign against RINO Ken Buck last month because he has not only betrayed the people of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District but has betrayed President Trump and the America First movement as well.”
“I am running to be another soldier in Rightful President Trump’s army in Congress and will always put America First,” Leisy added.
Trump will be holding a rally on Wednesday night in Hialeah, Florida, which will serve as counter-programming to the third 2024 primary debate.
The 77-year-old former president has not participated in any of the debates, citing his sizable lead in the Republican primary statistics.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have all qualified for the third Republican presidential debate on November 8.
Senior advisor to the Trump campaign, Chris LaCivita, has pleaded with the RNC to end the debates and “quit wasting time and money” by directing the party’s attention toward unseating President Joe Biden in November 2024.
Trump has effectively declared that the nomination contest is over and the debates “seem to be a complete waste of time” in posts on Truth Social, citing his commanding lead in polls.
Trump’s presidential campaign took in tens of millions of dollars during the third quarter, even exceeding his high second-quarter performance as he continues to surge ahead of his 2024 Republican rivals.
Trump’s campaign announced that it raised $45.5 million in the third quarter.
The campaign reported having more than $37.5 million in cash on hand, a release stated. In addition, Trump’s campaign said that GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is in second place behind Trump in most polls, only had $5 million in cash on hand for the ongoing primaries, the Times added.
DeSantis’s campaign raised $15 million in the third quarter. Robert Bigelow, who donated $20 million to a DeSantis-allied PAC, said in August that he would stop donating if DeSantis didn’t moderate his policy positions.
In the release, the Trump campaign announced: “In an impressive testament to the overwhelming grassroots support behind President Trump that will lead to dominating victories, close to $36 million of the total cash on hand is designated for the primary.”
“While DeSanctus’ fundraising, like his poll numbers, has seen an exponential drop even from July, President Trump outraised his impressive $35 million haul in Q2 (which doubled Q1 fundraising) by more than $10 million,” the Trump campaign said.
“The Q3 numbers are even more impressive considering the summer months are usually when most campaigns experience lagging fundraising support,” the Trump campaign added. “President Trump and his campaign have completely shattered that notion.”
Meanwhile, as Trump becomes a juggernaut once again and appears, at this time, to be a shoo-in to win the GOP nomination, other surveys have him moving even with or past President Biden in some of the most critical swing states.
Voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were polled by Bloomberg/Morning Consult, and their results showed that Trump was ahead of Biden by 4 percentage points due to widespread disapproval of the vice president’s handling of the economy.
Trump is leading Biden in Georgia by 5 points, Arizona by 4 points, North Carolina by 4 points, Wisconsin by 2 points, and Pennsylvania by 1 point. Biden leads Trump by 3 points in Nevada, and the two candidates are running even in Michigan, according to the survey.
In the seven swing states, 49% of voters said Bidenomics—the term the White House has used to describe Biden’s economic agenda—was bad for the economy.
In those seven states, 46% of undecided voters think Bidenomics is bad for the economy, while 41% either don’t know enough about it or have no opinion.
A survey found that 14% of voters who said they would vote for the president in 2020 now say they would vote for Trump, are undecided, or will not vote at all.
Only 9% of Trump voters in 2020 said they would vote for Joe Biden in 2024, while 91% of Trump voters in 2020 said they would vote for Trump again.
