Former United States President Donald Trump dominated the 2024 GOP presidential straw poll at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Sunday vs. Sen. Ron DeSantis despite the looming scandal of the Capitol Hill attack.
TPUSA polled attendees of the conference, who were youth activists from across the country, who they would vote for in the 2024 presidential elections if Trump opted to run for the nation's highest position once again. The Republican businessman got 78.7% of the votes, with DeSantis only receiving 19%.
Trump 2024 Campaign
On Saturday night, Trump spoke at the conference teasing a potential 2024 presidential campaign run. The former president's statements were the keynote on the second day of the TPUSA and were followed by DeSantis, who talked on Friday and is considered to be one of the foremost potential GOP 2024 contenders.
When Trump teased his possible 2024 presidential election run, he also noted that he won the 2016 election and made his continuous false claims that he won the 2020 election. Also, he said, "we may just have to do it again," as per Fox News.
Later in his speech, Trump said that if he stayed home or announced that he was not going to run for office, the House Select Committee's persecution of him would immediately stop. He also noted that that was exactly what the panel wanted him to do but argued there was no chance he would do that.
The former president closed his speech by saying that with Joe Biden's presidency, his re-election slogan of "keep America great," is now outdated. However, he noted that he would still continue with it.
Read Also: Steve Bannon Guilty of Contempt of Congress: He 'Chose Allegiance to Donald Trump' Over the Law
According to the New York Post, the other candidates in the poll received significantly lower votes, with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem getting 1%, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo getting 0.5%, and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence got 0.3% each.
The attendees at the conference were also asked who they thought would be the hardest to beat among Democratic 2024 candidates. California Gov. Gavin Newsom received a majority of the votes at 30.3%, as former First Lady Michelle Obama came in second with 13.6%, Hillary Clinton got 10.5%, Bernie Sanders received 10.3%, Vice President Kamala Harris got 7.9%, AOC got 5.9%, and Biden coming in at 4.4%.
Capitol Hill Riot Investigation
The situation comes as Trump is still the subject of scrutiny amid the House Select Committee's investigation of the events of the Capitol Hill riot. In the latest development of the probe, the panel is contemplating a subpoena for Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The subpoena will be issued if Thomas does not voluntarily meet with the committee over her role in advocating to overturn the 2020 election results, said the committee's co-chair on Sunday.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who serves as the vice chair of the committee, said that the panel was speaking with Thomas' counsel. "We certainly hope that she will agree to come in voluntarily, but the committee is fully prepared to contemplate a subpoena if she does not," said the Republican, CNN reported.
