MICHIGAN, BIRMINGHAM (Reuters) – On the eve of Tuesday’s midterm elections. Former President Donald Trump hinted that he is considering running for president in 2024. He said that he might do so as soon as next week.
“On Tuesday, November 15, I’m going to make a huge announcement. Trump told supporters at a rally for Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
However, voters in three battleground states expressed concerns about the 76-year-old Republican former president’s age, polarizing personality, and ability to compete in a general election in a national polling survey and interviews on Tuesday.
I will do everything possible to keep him from fleeing,” Gordon Nelson, 77, said, voted all-Republican in Birmingham, Michigan, on Tuesday. Nelson voted for Trump twice but now blames him for the country’s tense political climate and the Democrats’ congressional majority.
“He’s polarizing. I dislike him, “He stated.
Nelson’s viewpoint was shared by six other Republican voters interviewed by Reuters on Tuesday in Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan, most of whom expressed their dislike for Trump unprompted.
While that sample is unscientific, polling shows that millions of Republicans agree.
Approximately 60% of Republicans polled by Reuters/Ipsos last month said Trump should run again in 2024, while 36% said he should not. According to an Edison Research exit poll released Tuesday, six out of ten respondents had an unfavorable opinion of the former president.
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Strategists and party leaders say Trump is still the undisputed favorite to win the Republican nomination in two years, significantly if the massive Republican gains predicted on Tuesday night occur.
That level of opposition, however, could encourage Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, to be a potential Republican primary rival leading the pack if he decides to run. According to polls.
Other potential candidates, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, are among them. They are credited with combining conservative politics with less divisive rhetoric.
Yvonne Langdon, a 75-year-old retired mortgage banker from the Detroit suburbs. It is one of the voters who might prefer any of those names to Trump.
“I want a Republican with the character who shares some of my policies,” she said. She had hoped that Trump would change his tune after losing to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
“I believe (Trump) would stir the pot. I thought he’d change his tune after losing the last election. He hasn’t done so. I believe his ego is too large to bear.”