Ron DeSantis has touted his Rust Belt roots as a unique selling point in Pennsylvania.
Yet a new poll shows that message is only resonating with 1 out of every 10 Republican Presidential Primary voters, and that he continues to shed support in the state.
The Quinnipiac survey finds former President Donald Trump leading the field, with 61% support among registered Republican voters in Pennsylvania.
In a distant second, yet 4 points ahead of the Florida Governor, is former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. She has 14% support.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (6%) and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (4%) round out the field.
The survey was conducted from Jan. 4 through Jan. 8, with 651 self-identified registered Republican voters polled, and a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points.
Other polls have shown declining support for DeSantis. An October Franklin & Marshall (F&M) Poll showed DeSantis at 14%, 41 points behind Trump. A previous Quinnipiac University poll conducted between Sept. 28 and Oct. 3 also showed DeSantis at 14%.
All told, DeSantis looks poorly positioned to take the state’s trove of 67 delegates, allocated on a winner-take-all basis.
DeSantis took a trip to the Keystone State earlier this year, before he launched his campaign formally. The Governor addressed Republicans at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg, offering largely familiar remarks in a speech that was well-received by the GOP faithful.
In recent months, DeSantis has played up his roots in the Rust Belt regions of Pennsylvania and neighboring Ohio as being key to surviving the left-wing crucibles of Yale and Harvard Law School.
He offered a reminiscence in his best-selling book, “The Courage to be Free.”
“I was geographically raised in Tampa Bay,” DeSantis writes, “but culturally my upbringing reflected the working-class communities in western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio — from weekly church attendance to the expectation that one would earn his keep. This made me God-fearing, hard-working and America-loving.”
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