Echelon primary polls shows Trump dominating among Young Republicans and DeSantis with older

[Ferguson97]

Not at all surprising given most of the young Republicans that I know.

[Ferguson97]

DeSantis is much more anti gay than Trump, which is probably also a factor as most under 30s, even most under 30 Republicans, have at least one non straight friend.

There are rumors that DeSantis is bisexual/gay, so that may be in line with the Aaron Schock type of overcompensating.

If you are obsessed with what other people do in their bedrooms, you probably have some sexual skeletons in your closet. This has been known for ages. I've lost count of all the bigoted conservative politicians who turned out to be not exactly straight themselves.

Based on some of the rumors that have circulated so far, I think it's more likely that DeSantis is guilty of statutory rape than being a closeted gay man.

[Ferguson97]

...dunno that I've heard either of these things. I want to say that one of the advantages of running a large-state Governor like DeSantis would be that he comes pre-vetted, since you'd guess there would've been large oppo-gathering operations during his campaigns and governorship, but then again given that nobody managed to find out during the campaign that Andrew Gillum did meth orgies perhaps you wouldn't expect that to be the case.

And you'd think that Hershel Walker's scandals would have come up during vetting, or Brett Kavanaugh, or Cal Cunningham, etc... Maybe the people who vet candidates are just bad at their jobs?

[Ferguson97]

Fractured party = defeats in the future.

This is an old pattern, but it really does not seem to have held in the 21st century. (In fact, in the years when both parties have had open primaries -- 2000, 2008, and 2016 -- it is distinctly the party with the more rancorous and negative process which has won: Republicans in 2000, Democrats in 2008, and Republicans again in 2016.)

The Democrats aren’t going to have an open primary though, so that’s not really a relevant factor here.