Last month Townhall Media launched its 2024 GOP presidential primary straw poll, giving our readers and viewers a chance weigh in on who they think the strongest candidate will be. Participants can cast one vote each and every month, and we now have our first round of ballots tabulated and accounted for. Over at Townhall, Spencer Brown has a rundown of all of the votes cast, which shows Donald Trump with a sizable lead but a surprisingly strong performance by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as well.

Unsurprisingly, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis were the most popular in the THM straw poll, with the 45th president drawing nearly 52 percent overall followed by the Sunshine State’s chief executive earning slightly more than 38 percent. The other eight candidates on the THM straw poll drew less than four percent support each, with Pence, Christie, Elder, Burgum, and Hutchinson drawing less than one percent.

Zooming in, some of Trump’s biggest margins were seen in Alaska, Vermont, the District of Columbia, and Louisiana while DeSantis took first place in Colorado, Georgia, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

When it comes to the important early states on the primary calendar, Trump leads DeSantis 45-39 percent in Iowa, 48-36 in New Hampshire, 56-32 in South Carolina, and 53-37 in Nevada.

Among the less-popular candidates, these are the state(s) in which each drew the most support (as a percent of votes in each state) among Townhall straw poll voters:

• Vivek Ramaswamy: 16% in the District of Columbia
• Tim Scott: 6% in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming
• Nikki Haley: 11% in the District of Columbia
• Mike Pence: 2% in Rhode Island
• Chris Christie: 5% in Vermont and the District of Columbia
• Larry Elder: *did not get more than one percent in any state*
• Doug Burgum: 11% in North Dakota
• Asa Hutchinson: 2% in Arkansas and Vermont

While Brown was crunching the numbers for the votes across all of the Townhall Media family of websites, I have the numbers specifically from Bearing Arms readers and voters, and while Trump and DeSantis are still running first and second, the margin was even closer than across all of the websites combined.

Donald Trump was the first choice for 45.29% of voters from Bearing Arms, with DeSantis running a close second with 38.82%. Vivek Ramaswamy was a distant third at 5.29%, Nikki Haley is in fourth place with 3.53% and fellow South Carolinian and U.S. Senator Tim Scott right behind her at 2.94%.

Talk show host and conservative pundit Larry Elder garnered the support of 1.76% of Bearing Arms’ voters, while former Vice President Mike Pence captured the votes of 1.18% of our readers. There are even a couple Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson fans among our regulars, with both candidates pulling in 0.59% of the vote.

As I mentioned, you can cast your vote once every 30 days, so if you were one of the early voters in June you’re eligible to submit another entry right now. Just click on through to the 2024 GOP Straw Poll and weigh in. You can stick with your favorite candidate from last month or pick a new option, and it’ll be fascinating to see a few weeks from now which candidates are rising or falling in the eyes of our Townhall Media readers. The results of this round of voting will be released on August 8th, just a few weeks before the first GOP debate is scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and we’ll be able to see which candidates are gaining momentum or losing ground before they take the stage.