{"id":2646035,"date":"2026-08-17T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wj-straw-poll-rubio-widens-his-lead-in-this-weeks-survey-but-can-he-hold-it\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T12:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:54:10","slug":"wj-straw-poll-rubio-widens-his-lead-in-this-weeks-survey-but-can-he-hold-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wj-straw-poll-rubio-widens-his-lead-in-this-weeks-survey-but-can-he-hold-it\/","title":{"rendered":"WJ Straw Poll: Rubio Widens His Lead in This Week&#8217;s Survey, But Can He Hold It?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwj-straw-poll-rubio-widens-his-lead-in-this-weeks-survey-but-can-he-hold-it%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2646035&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The content discusses a Western Journal presidential straw poll focusing on potential Republican candidates for the 2028 election. Marco Rubio maintains a strong lead with 46.1% support, up slightly from the previous week. J.D. Vance is in second place with 24.3%, while Thomas Massie, who experienced the largest drop, has 12.7%. President Donald Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis follow, with Trump at 8% and DeSantis at 6.2%. The poll emphasizes that no candidates have officially announced their runs yet, and voter preferences may change as the race develops over the next 16 months. The poll is informal and intended to gauge ongoing support for candidates before the official primaries.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Secretary of State Marco Rubio remained firmly in first place in this week\u2019s Western Journal presidential straw poll, widening an already substantial lead over the rest of the Republican field.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio received the support of 46.1 percent of respondents who participated in our non-scientific straw poll during <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.westernjournal.com\/straw-poll-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the week of Aug. 10-16<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That was up 2.8 percent from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wj-straw-poll-rubio-remains-man-beat-thomas-massie-gains-ground\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the previous week<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President J.D. Vance finished second with 24.3 percent, posting a gain of 2.4 percentage points from the Aug. 3-9 poll.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, saw the largest decline in support among the leading candidates this past week.<\/p>\n<p>He fell to 12.7 percent, a drop of 3.9 percentage points from the previous week.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 Straw poll RESULTS are in for the week of Aug. 10-16 \u2014 here\u2019s how the GOP 2028 field stacks up:<\/p>\n<p>Marco Rubio \u2013 46.1%<br \/> JD Vance \u2013 24.3%<br \/> Thomas Massie \u2013 12.7%<br \/> Donald J. Trump \u2013 8%<br \/> Ron DeSantis \u2013 6.2%<br \/> Other \u2013 2.7%<\/p>\n<p>Submit a new vote each week at The Western Journal\u2019s\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zoZuys10G1\">pic.twitter.com\/zoZuys10G1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Western Journal (@WesternJournalX) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WesternJournalX\/status\/2089360504049246563?\">August 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump came in fourth at 8 percent, despite the fact that he is not running again and is term-limited.<\/p>\n<p>His support dropped 0.9 points this past week, yet the sitting president remained the favored candidate for many.<\/p>\n<p>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in fifth at 6.2 percent, slipping 0.2 percentage points from the week before.<\/p>\n<p>All other candidates combined to receive 2.7 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<p>Candidates receiving less than 2 percent are grouped into the \u201cOther\u201d category in the Western Journal\u2019s weekly Straw Poll.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio\u2019s strong results show he remains the clear leader right now, at least in this survey.<\/p>\n<p>Vance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/weekly-straw-poll-vances-support-slides-record-high-yet-no-candidate-comes-close\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has finished first<\/a> in this survey several times before, but Rubio has elevated his profile in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>The vice president still has plenty of time to catch up, especially since Trump\u2019s current term is about to reach its halfway point \u2014 that is, assuming Vance makes a run for the White House.<\/p>\n<p>No candidate in our poll has announced their intention to run.<\/p>\n<p>There is always the possibility that a candidate not named could emerge at any point between now and when the 2028 campaign shifts into overdrive.<\/p>\n<p>The president has not yet said who he wants as his successor.<\/p>\n<p>There is little doubt his opinion on the matter could influence the race to carry the conservative movement into the future.<\/p>\n<p>Primary voting is still about 16 months away.<\/p>\n<p>The Western Journal Straw Poll is an informal survey that will track the popularity of the Republican candidates until voters get to choose who they want to carry the movement into a new decade at the polls.<\/p>\n<p>You can participate in this week\u2019s survey by <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.westernjournal.com\/strawpoll2028\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #171717; display: flex;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;line-height: 1.5;margin: 24px 0;padding: 18px 20px 18px 30px;text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"align-self: stretch;border-left: 3px solid #171717;flex-shrink: 0;padding-left: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/\">Choose The Western Journal as your preferred source on Google and never miss reporting that defends truth, protects freedom, and advances Western civilization<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-of-appeals-in-swing-states-drop-major-ruling-hurting-kamala-harris-chances-against-trump\/\" title=\"Court of Appeals in Swing States Drop Major Ruling, Hurting Kamala Harris&#039; Chances Against ...\">highly engaged readers<\/a>, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey == typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts = { \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs = [ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]] = document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display = 'block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display = 'none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src = firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display = 'inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id'] = firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting = jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display = 'none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display = 'block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marco Rubio leads in this week\u2019s Western Journal GOP straw poll with 46.1% support, increasing his lead over other candidates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2646036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ben-Working-Feature-Image-10.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[50402,5894,15698,5438,40304],"class_list":["post-2646035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-leadership-2","tag-politics","tag-polling","tag-rubio","tag-straw-poll"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ben-Working-Feature-Image-10.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2646039,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646035\/revisions\/2646039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2646036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}