Ron DeSantis, currently governing a state in which 20% of the new COVID cases arise, and Don Jr., currently isn’t governing anything but his own self-promotion, came out on top of a new poll conducted by Tony Fabrizio, who did polling for Donald Trump’s two presidential campaigns. The poll did not include Donald Trump. We figure it must be because it’s not worth the effort, they know his approval remains high enough.

The numbers were reported by Axios, though the article did not reveal the questions asked, nor the order in which the poll listed the candidates. The poll does show that proximity to Trump is the only thing that truly matters to today’s GOP. To some extent – not having criminal allegations against one, or not discussing Jewish space lasers will hurt a person’s approval ratings… some. The single biggest sin is opposing Trump.

According to the Guardian:

Donald Trump Jr., a favorite at Trump rallies dating back to 2015 and 2016, scored the highest approval ratings in a new survey by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates.

em>His approval rating stood at a net positive rating of 55 per cent among Republicans. He was running essentially even with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has rallied his party against coronavirus lockdowns.

Given that the organization polled only Republicans, it’s rather remarkable that the two of them scored as low as they did. But what is even more remarkable is that Matt Gaetz is still above water with a 17% net positive rating, this must be juxtaposed against Liz Cheney who is at negative 43%. In this poll, the starting point is “0” and one can be lifted or lowered from there. Give that some thought when looking at the difference between an alleged assailant of an underage teen girl (or, at best, one that paid for “favors” with girls just months over the legal age, at best) and a staunch conservative who simply opposes Trump.

To round things out and further demonstrate that proximity to Trump is everything, Marjorie Taylor-Greene came in at 8% positive and Mitch McConnell only 2%. This is the same Mitch McConnell who kept Trump in office during one impeachment, kept Trump viable in seeking office during the second impeachment, and buried a truly bipartisan investigation into January 6th. The GOP awarded him with 2% favorability, undoubtedly because McConnell chewed Trump’s ass out after the second impeachment. That’s not allowed. Thus he ends up six points under Marj.

We should note that this was not a poll favoring presidential candidates (we would have trouble believing that McConnell would score a net positive. From our point of view, the two biggest stories coming out of this poll are Don Jr.’s prominence, despite criminal trouble, and the hatred of Liz Cheney, despite her impeccable conservative credentials. It is Donald Trump’s cult, in case anyone had any doubt.

Twitter had some thoughts:

https://twitter.com/erinvahrenkamp/status/1419665599144374273

Can't make this up.@DonaldJTrumpJr leads as most popular @GOP figure, inching past @RonDeSantisFL .

Apparently, Republicans want a bit more 'partying' in their Party.

SAD!@LeaderMcConnell #RIPGOPhttps://t.co/47zQCCyzFk

— Linda Brickley 🦋 🇺🇦 (@linda_brickley) July 27, 2021

https://twitter.com/EnjoyThe80/status/1420021963322449929

There is no mud pit to deep for the Republican Party, I know Newsmax is not real news but it wouldn’t be surprising to have a no good rotten worthless bastard like Don Jr be popular with the Republican base. https://t.co/C1Ew36Y8U7

— Dale Callihan ☮️🌴🌊🗽☘️🌍🌗🌏🌙🐬🐅 (@dale_callihan) July 27, 2021

https://twitter.com/hmzdu/status/1420170148124807174

I remember when the Republican Party actually had intelligent people among its ranks.

— Susan Robbins (@robbinsmail) July 27, 2021

Somehow that's probably not going to work out. pic.twitter.com/rVe3DOlbam

— The Great Divider (@CGovid) July 27, 2021

I can't think of a list that will alienate suburban moms more than that. Maybe Hitler, Attila the Hun, Stalin, Vlad the Impaler, Caligula and Genkis Khan.

— SD Yankees fan (@SDYankeesfan69) July 26, 2021

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