Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has his eyes on the White House. But that’s slipping away.
Because the DeSantis campaign has confirmed sad news about the Florida Governor.
According to a new poll taken after the second GOP debate, Nikki Haley is now statistically ahead of Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary for New Hampshire.
Among Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, the former governor of South Carolina now has 19 percent support, compared to 10 percent for DeSantis, per a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA TODAY survey published on Wednesday.
Trump, the former president, continues to lead the pack, though, with 49% of the vote. Nearly half (48.4%) of prospective Republican primary voters in New Hampshire think Trump will definitely be the nominee.
Haley has been gaining ground since the first two debates in the Republican race. A note from Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio to the former President’s fundraisers and allies, obtained by Axios, revealed that Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy were closing the gap on DeSantis in New Hampshire following the first debate in August.
After the debate, Haley’s support in Iowa increased, according to a poll conducted in August by Public Opinion Strategies, a firm with ties to the DeSantis campaign.
According to a Washington Post/FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll, the percentage of Republican voters considering endorsing Haley rose from 29 percent before the first debate to 46 percent afterward.
It appears that Trump has taken note of Haley’s post-debate surge: On Friday, he slammed his former U.N. ambassador as “birdbrain” on TruthSocial after having largely ignored her since she entered the race. Then, over the weekend, according to Haley’s post on X, his campaign sent a birdcage, seed, and a handwritten letter to her hotel.
It should be noted that it is unconfirmed whether the trolling gift was actually delivered by the Trump campaign rather than some random person of the public.
After a day of campaigning, this is the message waiting for me outside my hotel room…#PrettyPatheticTryAgain#YouJustMadeMyCaseForMe pic.twitter.com/htbSumo58r
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) October 1, 2023
The sampling error for the Suffolk survey, conducted between September 28 and October 2, was +/- 4.4 percentage points.
As for DeSantis, this is yet another blow to his campaign that can’t seem to get its grip that it once had.
In 2022, Ron DeSantis was considered to be a major eventual candidate who would likely storm to the White House. Even at the beginning of the year, after Trump had already announced his candidacy, Ron DeSantis was still considered to be a top contender.
But now he’s losing his spot as the clear number two pick amongst conservative voters.
Of course, polls aren’t everything. Donald Trump was discounted countless times in the 2016 election, first by the Republicans during the primary and then by the Democrats in the general election against Hillary Clinton.
So anything can happen. No votes have been cast for anyone just yet in the Republican primary. But it’s hard to see Ron DeSantis make it back to the highs that he was at last year and earlier this year.
The silver lining for Ron DeSantis is that many conservative voters who are going to be casting their vote for Donald Trump to be the nominee say that they believe Ron DeSantis is their clear second pick.
They also suggest that he could be a great 2028 candidate after Donald Trump has served a second term.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal for more updates on the 2024 election.
