Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, reports a majority of Americans are convinced that the country is going in the wrong direction and believe former President Donald Trump is the person to turn things around.
According to the Harvard-Harris Poll, Trump leads Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by 40 points among Republicans, and he tops President Joe Biden by five points in a general election matchup.
DeSantis also came out ahead of Biden, but only by one point.
"I think the difficulty for every candidate other than Trump is that Trump has a solid base that no matter what happens, they will not leave him," Clark notes. "You can have a more articulate [candidate], and there are certainly more articulate candidates than Donald Trump; you can have candidates with good records, like Ron DeSantis, but people are not going to leave Donald Trump."
"He has his core base," the analyst continues. "It doesn't matter how many indictments you throw at him. It doesn't matter how well he does on the debate stage. And that's hard for other candidates, when you have a fixed base that will not leave you."
But on the other end of the spectrum, he recognizes that the anti-Trump base is just as loyal.
"You've still got people who don't like Donald Trump, who may not vote for him, against their own economic self-interest," Clark says. "That boggles my mind."
But considering the "lousy" economy, Clark poses "the old question Reagan asked: 'Are you better off today than you were four years ago?'"
The answer, be submits, is "no" for everybody.
"Our nation cannot withstand six more years of Joe Biden," Clark concludes.
