According to new polling, former President Donald Trump has now seized a 28-point lead over Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis gathered only 26 percent of support, according to a new poll by Morning Consult, where former President Trump took 54 percent support. It is the lowest level of support for DeSantis in the same survey since December. While the Florida governor has not yet formally announced a 2024 campaign for the presidency, an announcement is widely expected at the end of Florida’s legislative session.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has also not announced a run for the highest office, came in third in the poll with seven percent, followed by former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at four percent. Although she is not in the race, former GOP Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming received three percent of the support of those surveyed.
However, Gov. DeSantis performed slightly better against President Biden than Trump.
When asked about a hypothetical match-up between DeSantis and Biden, respondents favored the current president by 43 to 41 percent. In a hypothetical match-up between Trump and Biden, Biden leads by 44 to 41 percent.
The survey was taken from March 17 to March 19, as news broke that Trump expects to be indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Around 3,400 potential GOP primary voters responded, with the poll’s margin of error of two percentage points.
DeSantis attacks ongoing Trump investigation
Former President Trump has regularly launched attacks at DeSantis after his hesitancy to come to the former president’s defense after the news of his impending indictment.
On Monday, DeSantis attacked the ongoing investigation of Republican rival Trump. The Manhattan D.A. has been probing the $130,000 ‘hush payment’ to Stormy Daniels.
The Florida Governor said he didn’t know “what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” then accused D.A. Bragg of ignoring the rising crime in New York City.
At the same time, DeSantis echoed some of the former president’s attacks, calling Bragg a “Soros-funded prosecutor” — referencing a $1 million donation that the billionaire gave to a Color of Change during the 2021 election of Bragg.
“What I can speak to is that if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction, and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments,” said DeSantis.
“You know, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office,” added DeSantis.
Trump responded to DeSantis’ comments about the hush money payment and ranted on Truth Social, “Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser and better known when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are ‘underage’ (or possibly a man!). I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!”
DeSantis laid out the differences between himself and Trump in an interview with Piers Morgan that aired Tuesday.
“Well, I think there’s a few things. The approach to Covid was different. I would have fired somebody like Fauci. I think he got way too big for his britches, and I think he did a lot of damage.”
“I also think just in terms of my approach to leadership; I get personnel in the Government who have the agenda of the people and share our agenda. You bring your own agenda in you’re done. We’re just not gonna have that. So, the way we run the Government I think, is no daily drama, focus on the big picture and put points on the board, and I think that’s something that’s very important.”
