Gov. Ron DeSantis is headed back to the Granite State Tuesday, in an attempt to kick-start his presidential campaign in the first-in-the-nation Primary state.
DeSantis, as is often the case, will be attending events hosted by the supportive Never Back Down super PAC.
The main event of Tuesday’s trip will be a co-appearance with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.
Sununu hasn’t endorsed, and he has appeared with DeSantis over the summer and with other candidates this cycle. On Tuesday, he will appear alongside DeSantis at a town hall event in the evocatively named town of Seacoast, which is directly north of Boston.
That town hall runs from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.
DeSantis has openly courted Sununu’s endorsement, saying in August on “The Pulse of New Hampshire” that he thinks Sununu “has done a great job,” believes “New Hampshire is the best-governed state in New England, and “reject(s) Donald Trump’s attacks” on Sununu.
That sweet talk came 24 hours after Sununu said he had “concern” about the DeSantis campaign, and urged him to “get on the ground” and “put people on the ground in Iowa in New Hampshire, knocking on doors.”
Sununu’s “concern” about the DeSantis campaign parallels problems in the polls for the Florida Governor, who has been on a continual decline for months in the state.
According to the Race to the White House polling average, his 11% is good for third place, behind Trump (46%) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (15%).
But other polls have shown Haley further ahead in the battle for second place. A USA Today/Boston Globe/Suffolk Poll released earlier this month showed her with 19%, nearly doubling DeSantis’ 10%.
For his part, DeSantis has downplayed the polls as organically going “up and down.”
“New Hampshire Primaries are very volatile, as you know, so we have the groundwork in place. Now you’re going to start seeing us,” he said on the “Good Morning New Hampshire” radio show earlier this month, at which time he outlined his strategy.
“We’re going to be up in the town halls, we’re going to be doing all that because we know how important it is. So, we’re in good shape. I think that there’s a lot of real estate to go and we’re the only one that’s really, you know, challenging Donald Trump in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Some are focusing on one, some are focusing on others, we’re going to do both to the hilt because we know both are really important.”
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