A new survey from McLaughlin and Associates finds Florida’s Governor is an afterthought, at least early on, in a hypothetical 2028 presidential race.
The survey, conducted Jan. 22 through 27, shows Ron DeSantis at 8% support, far behind Vice President JD Vance (27%) and Donald Trump, Jr. (21%).
Another Florida man is farther back: Secretary of State Marco Rubio has 3% support, tied with Tulsi Gabbard and Vivek Ramaswamy.
DeSantis was also at 8% in an Echelon Insights poll of the theoretical contest conducted last year, with Vance nearly 30 points ahead of him.
DeSantis’ comments about his future intentions have been all over the place, meanwhile, but he clearly is not closing the door on higher office.
“Oh, I haven’t ruled anything out,” DeSantis said in February, addressing the 2028 question during a call with people who pledged to be his delegates at the GOP Convention.
“We’ll see what the future holds,” DeSantis said to a radio host in Iowa last January, suggesting he may indeed be striving to keep the band together.
“Most of the people that supported me, whether activists, whether volunteers, whether fundraisers, you know, they’re all on board, you know, for what the future holds. So we’ll be active,” DeSantis promised.
As DeSantis skirmishes with the Florida Legislature over immigration legislation, setting the stage for a fractious next two years, it will be interesting to see how that affects his estimation among Republican voters nationally, especially with Vance playing to the same bloc of voters.
Based on what polls are out this earl though, DeSantis is room for improvement.
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