DeSantis takes his campaign to South Carolina as poll shows he has LOST ground to frontrunner Trumps

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arrived in South Carolina on Friday in the third leg of an early swing after learning his disastrous campaign launch saw him lose ground to front-runner Donald Trump.

A new poll shows the former president has increased his lead over DeSantis by eight points since early May.

The data will be a blow to DeSantis, who last week used an online interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk to enter the race. But problems on Twitter Spaces meant the event started late and listeners were repeatedly kicked off the stream.

A Yahoo News/YouGov of 1,520 adults found that Trump had increased his share of support from 48% in early May to 53%.

DeSantis’ share fell from 28% to 25%, giving the former president a 28% lead.

A new poll shows DeSantis has lost ground to front-runner Trump over the past month, despite launching his campaign last week. He now trails by 28 points, down from 20 at the start of May

However, only 13% said the botched launch gave them an “unfavorable” impression.

Even so, the data will pose a headache for the DeSantis campaign which hammers home the message that the Florida governor is more eligible than Trump.

Against that backdrop, DeSantis will hold three events in South Carolina on Friday, following jumps to New Hampshire and Iowa — three of the most important states in the primary race.

His Never Back Down super PAC is stepping up in Palmetto State to coincide with the visit. Solicitors will be knocking on doors this weekend and the group has a series of endorsements to roll out in the coming days, according to a source familiar with the plans.

Analysts say all is not lost at this early stage and say DeSantis still has some way to go to win the Republican nomination.

James Johnson, co-founder of pollsters JL Partners, said his firm’s data suggested Trump’s command could prove soft in the coming weeks.

So although his poll found DeSantis trailing 15 points in Iowa and 33 points in New Hampshire, nearly half of Trump supporters said the Florida governor was their second choice.

And they used the same word to describe him – “strong” – as they used for the former president.

Trump appeared Thursday night at a Fox News town hall and used it to beat his rivals

“Trump voters don’t use the same slurs he uses at rallies,” he said.

“Trump has so far failed to negatively define DeSantis in the minds of Republican primary voters.”

Additionally, he beats Trump on the three questions most important to Republican voters in New Hampshire: “Can beat Joe Biden in an election,” “Is competent,” and “Meets woke values.”

“It’s pretty unique for a poll where the other candidate has such a big lead,” Johnson said.

Even so, Trump said Thursday night that he believes DeSantis will pass away soon.

“You know, I’m really chasing whoever is second and I think whoever is second has gone down so much and so quickly that I don’t think he’s going to be second for much longer.” I think he’s going to be third or fourth,’ Trump told Sean Hannity in a Fox News town hall.

The two spent their time poking each other.

Trump used his time in Iowa to push back against DeSantis’ argument that he can serve two terms to advance his agenda, while his opponent would be limited to just one more.

“Who the hell wants to wait eight years? Trump said, insisting he only needed six months to unravel President Joe Biden’s policies.

For his part, DeSantis said Trump had already tried to solve the country’s problems.

He asked, “Why didn’t he do it in his first four years?”