Ron DeSantis continues to struggle in the “Live Free or Die” state.
In the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Primary, the Florida Governor is firmly in third place among Republican presidential candidates.
DeSantis’ 10% support puts him 9 points behind former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has 19% backing in the USA Today/Boston Globe/Suffolk Poll released Wednesday.
Far ahead of both candidates: former President Donald Trump, who has 49% support in the survey, which was made up of 40% independent voters and 60% Republican registrants.
The pollster told USA Today that candidates, presumably including DeSantis, would feel pressure to reconsider their candidacies in light of the Haley surge.
“This likely means more money, credibility and interviews will find their way to Haley,” said David Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center. “More importantly, a case will be made for others to drop out now and back Haley’s challenge to former President Trump.”
Though DeSantis has described the 2024 battle as a “two-man race” with Trump, he also has devoted energy to countering the threat Haley poses, seemingly to little avail in New Hampshire at least.
During an interview on last week’s “Ingraham Angle,” the Florida Governor and 2024 presidential candidate told Fox News viewers that he was an alternative to the “corporatism” represented by the former South Carolina Governor, as evidenced by a war of words over one of Florida’s most famous entities, The Walt Disney Co.
“We’ve seen corporations go very woke and you know, Nikki attacked me for standing up for the kids of Florida and she sided with Disney when we had a big fight over parents’ rights in education,” DeSantis told Laura Ingraham.
“We took the position that you shouldn’t sexualize curriculum in elementary school. Disney fought us. They tried to stop the bill, then they tried to get the bill repealed afterwards and we stood strong against the most powerful company in our state. I think she’s indicated she would have bent the knee in that situation. And I think that’s been more indicative of her approach, but that approach is a dead end.”
DeSantis has also mocked Haley’s performance as the Palmetto State’s chief executive, questioning what her “record” would be last month on the Mark Levin Show.
Despite these attacks, Haley is attaining parity with DeSantis in at least one recent national poll, and is ahead of the Florida Governor in South Carolina polling of late, meaning that as of now she is the prime Trump alternative in two of the four early states in the GOP nomination calendar.
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