Posted on 10/04/2023 3:10:21 PM PDT by conservative98
In the clash of the two Florida men, former president Donald Trump is beating Ron DeSantis by 35 percentage points, according to a new poll of Republican presidential primary voters that underscores the challenges the governor’s faces in his home state and the early states.
“Where DeSantis has been governor and the people know him best, he still can’t beat Trump. And if DeSantis can’t win in his own backyard, where can he win?” asked top Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, who conducted the survey for a private political client. Fabrizio also surveys for the pro-Trump super PAC, but other pollsters say his Florida numbers jibe with the trend lines of the race.
The poll of 500 Florida Republicans, which shows the other presidential candidates polling in single digits, comes on the heels of the Republican Party of Florida executive committee’s decision last month to nix a party loyalty oath at Trump’s behest. DeSantis allies tried to keep the oath in place, but Trump’s support is so deep in the grassroots that the governor was steamrolled.
But among the latter group, DeSantis is losing to Trump 61-27%. That result, reflected in other surveys, undercuts the governor’s core campaign argument that his high favorable ratings will lead Republicans to support him over Trump.
DeSantis’s answer: Iowa, the first state to vote in the GOP primary, where he has spent the most time and resources and is moving campaign staff.
But a new poll from a pro-DeSantis political committee shows he’s being badly beaten in Iowa as well by Trump, 50-19% — 4 points shy of Trump’s margin over DeSantis in the Fabrizio Florida poll as well as national surveys. That pro-DeSantis Iowa showed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley climbing into third place with 11%.
In a sign of his struggles in the early state, DeSantis’s campaign announced Wednesday that it was moving staff from Tallahassee to Iowa ahead of the Jan. 15 caucus.
The most recent New Hampshire survey, taken by Suffolk University for USA Today and released Wednesday shows Trump leading Haley 49-18% with DeSantis falling to third at 10%.
“What is it with Florida politicians? They look great on paper but they really struggle against Donald Trump,” Suffolk pollster David Paleologos said, noting that Trump in 2016 beat Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush in the Republican presidential primary.
But it’s not just Florida Republicans who have trouble with Trump in their home states – both Haley and Sen. Tim Scott are losing to Trump in South Carolina primary polling.
Kevin Wagner, a pollster for Florida Atlantic University, last surveyed the Republican primary in Florida in June and found DeSantis trailing Trump by 20 points. Wagner said the polling by Fabrizio in Florida sounds plausible because it tracks with the trends in the race in other states.
Fabrizio said the DeSantis campaign has had “a theory a day over they’re not losing. But the numbers don’t lie The fact is DeSantis is losing badly in Florida. He’s losing badly in Iowa. He’s losing badly in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, across the nation. He’s losing everywhere.”
+1 000 000
The DeSantis campaign is probably the worst l can remember. From the moment he waffled on Ukraine it was a train wreck that kept getting worse. It was as if he went down a list of things of things that would hurt him with the base and just kept digging.
Meatball wants more campaign money for a swimming pool before he drops out
This is not about DeSantis beating Trump.
This is about who is the alternative if Trump is unable to run.
If you are right then the approach was an epic screw up. He could have stuck with what him popular in the first place, that way if the rats used lawfare to take Trump off the board Ron would have been almost unstoppable revenge candidate. Instead we got this cluster bleep.
He always was losing everywhere
Roy is a real Jack*** and a fake conservative.
Most MAGA will not vote for Ronnie under those circumstances.
Circling around like a Buzzard is not a path to victory.
DeSantis will not win a single primary, neither will any of the other midgets.
He’s losing everywhere except in his own mind. 😏
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