Poll shows ex-president dominating his rival in their home state after snatching a sweep of endorsements
- Some 60 percent of respondents said they were backing Trump in new poll
- The state’s governor trails a distant second with 21 percent of Republican voters
- And 71 percent said Trump did nothing wrong in contesting the 2020 result
There is a clear winner in the battle of Florida‘s Republican big beasts.
Mar-a-Lago resident Donald Trump trounces the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, by 39 points in a new poll of Republican primary voters.
The results will be seen by the former president’s campaign as another sign that his nomination is all but secured, cementing his position as the likely Republican candidate to face off against President Joe Biden.
Some 60 percent of those surveyed said they would pick Trump as the nominee, according to the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab.
Its poll was published Tuesday, a day before Republican rivals do battle in Miami in their third televised debate.
Trump will stay away as he has done for each of the previous debates, leaving the candidates to slug it out for second place.
The poll found that only 21 percent of Republicans would pick DeSantis, in a state where he won a second term as governor in a landslide victory only a year ago.
Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, solidifies her position with six percent of the vote in third place.
She is followed by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on two points, and biotech entrepreneur.
‘Despite historically high approval in the polls, Gov. DeSantis losing steam in his home state doesn’t bode well for his national campaign,’ said Michael Binder, PORL faculty director and UNF professor of political science.
‘Even if you wipe out the rest of the competition in a head-to-head, Trump leads DeSantis by 20 points.’
DeSantis has struggled to kick his campaign into high gear.
Trump has even beaten him to a string of key endorsements on his home turf. He has a majority of Florida’s congressional delegation in his corner, including Sen. Rick Scott who came out for Trump last week.
And he was able to boast a string of local endorsements at the party’s Freedom Summit at the weekend.
It was latest blow to DeSantis. A day later, one of his main arguments, that he is more electable than baggage-laden Trump, was upended by a poll that showed the former president beating Biden in five of six swing states.