Donald Trump wins RCPB Straw Poll
The club hosted a forum on September 26th to contrast Florida’s two presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis which included a straw poll.
After an introduction by Fred Scheibl who highlighted the unprecedented nature of this 2024 election, Willy Guardiola (“Christian on a Mission”, “Trump Corner” rallies, anti-abortion activist) explained his personal connection to Donald Trump and why he needs to be re-elected. Then Joe Budd (“Trump-45 club co-founder, 2 time Congressional candidate) outlined why he thinks it is time for Ron DeSantis to take the reins of our country.
The coming election is unique to say the least. The twice impeached front-runner who has been indicted four times by a corrupt DOJ and vindictive prosecutors in New York and Georgia is the left’s worse enemy. They are willing to trash the rule of law, the first amendment, lawyer-client and executive privilege to prevent him from re-taking the white house. The media has dropped all pretense of fairness or impartiality. Leftists in the states are trying to keep Trump off the ballot with the 14th amendment, and there are unresolved election integrity issues, even in Florida. Despite all that, he has a majority in most national polls and in one, beats Joe Biden by 10 points.
Willy referred to the outstanding Trump record – “Making America Great Again” at least until Covid came along and threw the world into chaos, and the awesome experience of being in the crowd of 800,000 for the January 6th rally in Washington (before anything happened at the capitol). Trump is needed again to repair the damage done by Biden’s leftist minions.
Joe explained that although he still loves Trump, he finds the drama exhausting. Trump could have accomplished more if he had picked the right team or fired the ones that proved to be working against him. He contrasted that to Governor DeSantis who has actually fired the “bad ones” – SOEs Susan Bucher and Brenda Snipes, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, and a couple of rogue prosecutors. He touted the Governor’s conservative record – a CPAC 93 when in Congress, and how the 6 week abortion ban puts him to the right of Trump. As far as the polls are concerned, Joe pointed out that we don’t have national primaries and the results in Iowa and New Hampshire (which he thinks DeSantis can win) will change the dynamics of the race.
The attendees were asked to complete a straw poll ballot after hearing the speakers, and they were collected and tallied during the Q&A session which followed.
The results:
| For President | |
|---|---|
| Donald Trump | 53% |
| Ron DeSantis | 37% |
| Nikki Haley | 5% |
| Vivek Ramaswamy | 2% |
| Chris Christie | 2% |
| Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Others | 0% |
| For Vice President | |
| Nikki Haley | 24% |
| Kristi Noem | 13% |
| Vivek Ramaswamy | 13% |
| Tim Scott | 11% |
| Kari Lake | 11% |
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | 8% |
| Kim Reynolds | 5% |
| Matt Gaetz, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump | 1 vote each |
There was also one vote for the ticket of Ann Coulter and Megyn Kelly.
Also at the meeting was candidate Deb Adiemy, running for Congressional District 22.