Thousands recently gathered in Washington, D.C. for the first March for Life.
It was the first since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
And now Pro-Life voters left jaws on the floor after choosing their early 2024 Presidential favorite.
Pro-Life leaders and activists descended on our nation’s capital for the first March for Life since the Supreme Court finally overturned Roe v. Wade.
There was much to celebrate, but these Pro-Life leaders also realized there is still much work to do in the movement to save children from the slaughter that is abortion.
Students for Life conducted the first official 2024 Presidential straw poll
Among those out in force at the 2023 March for Life are the well-respected Students for Life.
They turned out thousands of supporters, activists, and of course students, for both the March and for a Students for Life conference.
It was at this conference that Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins announced their ambitious goal of having a presence in all of the nation’s more than 2,500 4-year colleges in the next five years.
And they also conducted the first official straw poll of the 2024 Presidential race at the National Pro-Life summit where more than 2,000 Pro-Life activists cast their vote.
To the surprise of some, the overwhelming winner of the poll was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
While many believe DeSantis will give Trump a run for his money, most polls of GOP voters have the former President far ahead of DeSantis.
But not among the Pro-Life community.
In fact, DeSantis won outright, finishing with 53.73 percent of the vote.
Huge victory for DeSantis shocks political pundits
That DeSantis won is not the biggest news.
How much he beat Trump by was the real headline.
While DeSantis received more than half of the votes cast, former President Donald Trump placed in a distant second with just 19.22 percent.
His former Vice President, Mike Pence — who has regularly called for a national ban on abortion — took home just 8 percent.
Pence was followed by former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, with 1.57 and 1.37 percent, respectively.
No other candidate received more than one percent.
Among those under a percent were South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Congresswoman, and Never-Trump leader Liz Cheney, and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.
Roughly 7 percent of the straw poll’s voters remain undecided on their 2024 candidate.
A wide variety of candidates we can get behind
The results are seen by some as more evidence of what has been a slow and bitter breakup between the former President and the Pro-Life movement that embraced his candidacy in 2016 and 2020.
It could however be as much about timing as anything.
The straw poll came just days after Trump appeared to blame the 2022 Midterm results on the Pro-Life issue and activists.
“There is a wide variety of candidates the Pro-Life movement can get behind, and that’s exactly what we intend to do,” Kristan Hawkins, the President of Students for Life, told Rolling Stone.
“We’re in a position as a movement, thanks to a strong Pro-Life platform that’s been in place by the GOP, to demand action from candidates,” Hawkins said. “Our candidate surveys ask right up front what they’re willing to do when they say they’re ‘Pro-Life.’”
“Checking the box and saying you’re ‘Pro-Life’ isn’t sufficient” in this “new era,” she said.
That includes DeSantis who is being lobbied heavily to improve Florida’s abortion laws to save even more babies.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
