There is considerable skepticism that former President Trump can win a general election in 2024, according to Republican leaders. As a result, GOP supporters are reportedly moving away from Trump.

According to them, the poor results of the 2022 midterm elections, in which a number of prominent Trump-backed candidates lost crucial contests, reinforced the notion that Trump does not appeal to independent and moderate Republican voters.

They observe that Trump’s escalating legal difficulties and recent gaffes provide his potential Republican competitors more ammunition to utilize in the 2024 Republican primary and have only contributed to the widespread Trump weariness.

And they are more willing to voice their worries in public.

“We win general elections when we bring independents with us. We need more than simply the loyal base that understands conservative principles,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “That’s the reason why you’re seeing the polls suggest that we have a number of individuals who would get more votes [than Trump] in the general election and so that’s going to drive the determination who we bring as our candidate.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) stated that Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, which he announced on November 15, has failed to garner pace in part due to his continuous promotion of unfounded allegations that he lost the 2016 presidential election due to widespread fraud.

“I don’t think it was helpful when the issues he was focusing on after he announced [his 2024 presidential campaign] related to the 2020 election. I think if he’s going to succeed, he has to focus on the future. I think if he focuses on the past, he won’t succeed,” she said.

“I do believe that people are over the 2020 election, and they want to move on,” she added.

A third Republican senator, speaking anonymously on Trump voter weariness, stated, “People are tired of losing.”

“If Trump was winning or if we were winning Senate seats or got a big majority in the House or got the majority in the Senate, many people would judge former President Trump differently,” the senator said.

“I have those kind of conversations with constituents frequently, and they say, ‘It’s probably time to move on. I like his policies but I think he killed us in Georgia twice,’” the senator said, citing perceptions that Trump hurt Republicans’ ability to win runoff Senate races in Georgia in 2020 and 2022.

A recent USA Today-Suffolk University poll of 1,000 registered voters throughout the country revealed that 61 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters support Trump’s ideas but want a new nominee in 2024.

By a margin of 56 percent to 33 percent, these people choose Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as a likely contender over Trump. It occurred from December 7 to 11.

A CNN survey of 1,208 persons in the United States conducted from December 1 to 7 revealed similar results.

Only 38% of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents thought the party should nominate Trump for president, down 12 percentage points from the 50% who said the same in a January-February study.

62 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents in a CNN study done by an independent research firm, SSRS, believed that the party should choose a new candidate.

38 percent of Republican voters who indicated they preferred someone other than Trump at the head of the ticket favored DeSantis.

More on this story via The Hill:

Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill say DeSantis’s surge in popularity among Republican voters is being driven by the recent success of GOP candidates in Florida, which was considered a swing state not long ago but has now turned sharply in favor of Republicans. CONTINUE READING…