New polling of the Golden State finds Ron DeSantis positioned for a bronze-level finish with his worst performance there yet.
In the University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies survey conducted Jan. 4-8, the Florida Governor had 8% support, putting him behind Donald Trump (66%) and Nikki Haley (11%).
With 169 delegates at stake in a winner-take-all format, there appears to be little drama as to how this contest will go.
This is the first survey of California Republicans to find DeSantis in single digits, suggesting that his Fox News debate against Gov. Gavin Newsom last year didn’t translate into support, though he has performed poorly in all recent polls of the state.
A recent Emerson College Poll shows Trump at 63% support, 52 points ahead of DeSantis’ 11%.
DeSantis also had 12% support in the previous University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies survey. He had the same level of support in the latest Public Policy Institute of California poll.
The Governor was in California earlier this fall for a presidential debate, where he also made some other news, including being condemned by the Salinas City Council ahead of a fundraising event in the city.
On a trip to the Port of Long Beach, DeSantis was flanked by truck drivers as he vowed to “take action” against California’s “electric mandates for big rigs.”
DeSantis has also used California as a public safety punching bag on the trail, both in the state and outside of it.
“When people are telling me that when they go shopping, they take off their jewelry because they don’t want to get mugged, even in nice places in L.A., that’s a huge, huge problem,” DeSantis said in Long Beach.
“I was just in San Francisco. I saw — in 20 minutes on the ground — people defecating on the sidewalk. I saw people using fentanyl. I saw people smoking crack right there in the open, right there on the street. It was a civilization in decay,” the Governor said at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event in June.
The Governor also appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO program, an appearance more notable for what the longtime comedian and talk show host said than anything else.
“If your campaign was going well, you wouldn’t be on this show,” Maher quipped, a seeming reference to the Governor’s penchant for friendly interviewers in recent years.
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