New poll numbers show Ron DeSantis doesn't stand a chance against Trump

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was once the darling of Republican primary voters and he posed a serious risk to Donald Trump’s control of the party. However, recent polling handed DeSantis a nasty dose of political reality. 

The Florida Governor is no longer as popular as he once was among Republican voters and DeSantis has seen a stunning decline in his polling numbers. January saw a high of 34.9% to Trump’s 43.7% according to FiveThirtyEight. 

Unfortunately for DeSantis, he no longer commands the same amount of support more than ten months into the Republican primary. The Florida governor has seen a marked decline in his popularity and may no longer be the number two. 

DeSantis has seen another major slip in support according to a new poll conducted by the Emerson College Polling Center, which found that the Florida Governor was sitting at an 8% share of support among those surveyed. 

Newsweek reported that DeSantis’ disastrous polling would put him on par with fellow Republican primary challenger and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Hailey, who has since had a slight rise in her polling numbers. 

Trump maintained the commanding lead Emerson College Polling Center found that the former president enjoyed in September with 59% of respondents choosing Trump as the person they want to see run in the 2024 Election. 

All other major Republican candidates polled under 4% while 10% of those polled noted they were still unsure of who they would support. These findings again solidified that the former president will likely be the GOP nominee. 

In September, Reuters reported that a number of early missteps in DeSantis’ campaign may have led to his increasingly poor performance in polling with supporters, including DeSantis’ reluctance to officially launch his campaign. 

Reuters was able to speak with sixteen political operatives and donors who were close to the DeSantis campaign and explained that the governor’s insistence on finishing the Florida legislative session is what hurt him most. 

“After Trump jumped into the race late last year, DeSantis waited for months to get in, dodging the subject of a presidential run with the media and refusing to respond to Trump's attacks,” journalists at Reuters wrote. 

“DeSantis hoped a productive Florida state legislative session would boost his candidacy,” the journalists continued. “Instead, it has saddled him with a restrictive abortion measure that has turned off some key donors,” they added. 

DeSantis was never able to recover from the major lead Trump was able to gain while the Florida Governor wasn’t in the race and the former president has only been able to gain more support as the primary has progressed. 

"This is Trump's party, and as long as the main act is still playing, no tribute band was ever going to do," the Founding Director of the Centre on U.S. Politics Thomas Gift told Newsweek about DeSantis’ poor performance. 

"All of this should have been predictable. For the MAGA crowd, why go for Trump-lite in DeSantis when you can have the real deal?" Gift added, and his point rings true since it is unlikely that DeSantis will be able to recover. 

Interestingly, Emerson College Polling Center data from October may suggest choosing Trump over DeSantis could be the best path forward for the Republican Party since the former president had a slight lead over his most likely opponent Joe Biden. 

47% of survey respondents said they would vote for Trump over Biden while 45% noted they would vote for Biden over Trump. 8% of respondents were undecided which means the 2024 election is still very much up for grabs.