Ron DeSantis will be at the center of the debate stage Wednesday night. But two new national surveys find him far behind the absent Donald Trump, at or near polling lows for the 2024 cycle.
The new Yahoo! and YouGov poll featured a blunt headline: “DeSantis’ support collapses ahead of first debate.”
The Governor, now at 12%, has lost nearly half his support from mid-July. He is 40 points behind Trump, and only 4 points above third-place Vivek Ramaswamy.
The biggest problem for DeSantis in this poll, however, may be that 54% of those polled want Trump, while just 34% want “someone else.” In a head-to-head matchup against Trump, DeSantis gets 23% support, with 60% preferring the former President.
A hypothetical head-to-head for DeSantis against Joe Biden suggests issues in the General Election, meanwhile. Biden leads overall, 45% to 40%. The President takes 91% of Democrats, with 1% crossing party lines. Meanwhile, DeSantis takes 83% of Republicans, with 4% going to Biden, and the remainder “not sure” or saying they “would not vote.”
Meanwhile, the latest survey from Morning Consult also augurs poorly for the Florida Governor.
“The former President is beating DeSantis by 44 percentage points among potential Republican Primary voters (58% to 14%) ahead of the first GOP presidential debate, marking one of the Florida Governor’s lowest levels of support since we began tracking the race in December,” reads the site’s memo accompanying the latest results.
DeSantis hit the 14% level for the first time earlier this month.
He’s still above the rest of the field, but the lead is shrinking. Ramaswamy has 10% support, Mike Pence has 6%, and no other candidate has more than 3% backing.
DeSantis is still the top second choice for Trump supporters, but with seemingly waning enthusiasm at 33%. Ramaswamy is the preferred backup plan for 23% of that group, and 13% pick Pence.
Ramaswamy’s net favorability among Republicans, meanwhile, is better than DeSantis’ number at this point. DeSantis has a 7-point advantage in favorable ratings, 62% to 55%. But his 23% unfavorable rating nearly doubles Ramaswamy’s 12%.
In a head-to-head against Biden, DeSantis is down by 6 points, 43% to 37%.
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