A pollster called Victory Insights has found Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis way, way behind in his own state amid the 2024 Republican presidential primary, in which the governor is challenging former President Donald Trump, the continued front-runner.
The polling concluded on August 23, and the data reflects individuals deemed likely voters in the upcoming primary. When an extensive list of contenders was presented to survey participants, Trump nabbed an outright majority of support, with 58.8 percent versus the governor’s 22.5 percent. No other contender was in double digits. When just Trump and DeSantis were presented to poll participants, the former president’s lead slightly narrowed, but the change wasn’t enough to make much of a substantial impact for DeSantis. Trump had 57.4 percent, and DeSantis was at 30.1 percent — over 20 points behind the ex-president, no matter Trump’s four criminal cases that some might have expected would have made challenging him an easier prospect.
There has not been an overwhelming level of Republican primary polling in Florida so far, though even earlier numbers from this very survey organization highlight the governor’s problems. In May, the governor was found to lead the former president by a single percentage point when the two were presented to poll participants without any other candidates named.
That slight lead for the governor, who’s faced a series of arguable gaffes alongside only increasing resentment and antagonism from Trump’s political corner, is gone. He’s not achieving much success with the voters who could make all the difference in a general election, either. During the recently held debate in the GOP primary, in which Trump did not participate, DeSantis initially hesitated in answering whether he supported what Mike Pence did on January 6 in going along with the Congressional certification of the election results from 2020. Pence, who was vice president at the time, is also running for the Republican nomination. He received about one percent of the support in the latest Florida polling from Victory Insights.
