Trump Dominates Straw Poll, and More From CPAC

Former President Trump once again cruised to victory in the CPAC straw poll for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Trump won 59% of the vote at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida over the weekend, with the state's governor, Ron DeSantis, coming in next with 28%, Fox News reports. In July, at CPAC Dallas, Trump was at 70% support with DeSantis at 21%.

DeSantis came in first at CPAC Orlando, with 61% of the vote, when the question was asked without Trump as a contender. In a distant second place was Mike Pompeo at 6.3%. Trump, of course, spoke at CPAC about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but as Politico reports, foreign policy was pretty far down the list of priorities at the conference, with many speakers basically ignoring the situation in Ukraine in favor of espousing on the "culture wars" topics of banned books, COVID mandates, "cancel culture," critical race theory, and other hot-button issues.

"The US southern border matters a lot more than the Ukrainian border," said activist Charlie Kirk, founder of the youth movement Turning Point USA, in bringing up another favorite talking point, immigration. For more, the Hill has five takeaways; among them is the fact that "jockeying" for the 2024 nomination is clearly already underway within the GOP. (More Conservative Political Action Conference stories.)