JD Vance leads CPAC poll for next Republican presidential candidate

One of the biggest conservative gatherings in the US ran a poll showing vice-president JD Vance is the top choice this year to be the next Republican presidential candidate.The poll from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), released on Saturday, was taken during this year’s gathering. About 53% of the more than 1,600 attendees who voted in the poll chose Vance, Reuters reports. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, came in second with 35%.CPAC is an important annual gathering for right-wing and Republican politicians and activists, hosted by the American Conservative Union. The gathering is being held this year in Grapevine, Texas. Reuters reports its annual straw poll ​is not necessarily a reliable predictor of the eventual Republican nominee for presidential elections.Although it is not a completely reliable poll, it offers insight into the conservative movement’s perspectives and shows that CPAC participants are supportive of Donald Trump’s administration after just one year in office.In the past year, there have been some rifts among Trump’s “make America great again” movement, with the Epstein files fiasco and foreign wars sowing division among its ranks. Some right-wing Maga supporters have abandoned the movement. For example, one of the biggest Maga supporters, Marjorie Taylor Greene, resigned from Congress this year after breaking away from the movement. Greene cited the Epstein files’ release, along with US wars in the Middle East, as key factors in her split from the movement.According to reporting from this year’s CPAC conference, although the poll demonstrated support for Vance, the rifts within the conservative movement continue to grow amid the US and Israel’s war on Iran. A Politico poll from this year shows the majority of his supporters are still backing Trump.During last year’s CPAC gathering in Maryland, Vance also led the poll with 61% of the vote, followed by Steve Bannon with 12%. Bannon is a right-wing podcaster, who served as adviser to Trump during his first term. Last year, Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, polled at 7%.Rubio only received 3% of the vote during last year’s CPAC meeting, but he has risen in popularity within the right-wing movement for his central role in US foreign policy, including US military operations, political maneuvers and establishment of close ties with foreign far-right leaders.According to Reuters, this year’s poll suggests support among conservatives was consolidating ⁠behind ​Vance and Rubio. No other contender ​in the poll received more than 2% of the vote.