DeSantis CLOSE GAP with Trump in Iowa by 14%: New poll shows Florida governor nearly halved ex-president’s lead in crucial primary state after rally tour with his Casey wife
Internal polls of Ron DeSantis supporters show the Florida governor gaining ground against top contender Donald Trump in the premier state of Iowa, the nation’s first primary contest.
A New Never Back Down PAC Survey shared with Axios DeSantis has closed the gap between the Trump frontrunner by 14% since his presidential announcement.
In mid-May, before DeSantis officially announced his presidential run at a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk, he had 24% in the Iowa polls, compared to Trump’s 48%, a 24% difference.
Weeks later, after officially kicking off his campaign on May 24, the Florida governor won 29% among likely Iowa caucus members to Trump’s 39%.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is slipping through the polls, now just 10% behind former President Donald Trump in Iowa
From mid-May to post-presidential announcement in late May, DeSantis narrowed the gap with Trump by 14%
Now the governor sits in second place with just 10% between him and the former president, while the rest of the field sits even further behind the two favorites.
But when the other candidates were removed from the equation and DeSantis and Trump were put head-to-head, the pro-DeSantis PAC found that the two frontrunners were effectively tied in Iowa — compared to the Governor’s 14-point deficit in mid-May.
Zooming out nationally, polls show DeSantis typically trailing Trump at least 20 points and the rest of the pack failing to hit double digits.
A new CNN survey conducted on the day of DeSantis’ announcement showed Trump up 56% to DeSantis’ 26%.
The new Never Back Down poll comes on the heels of DeSantis’ first official campaign in the early primary contest states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He will continue in Nevada later in June.
Trump also visited Iowa last week, riding the DeSantis swing.
Despite upbeat results from the leading PAC backing DeSantis’ GOP primary bid, other polls show he didn’t get the boost expected after the announcement.
Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis joined her husband on his tour through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina last week – helping bring star quality to the candidate’s first campaign swing
Trump is still the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican primary race, holding a decisive lead against the other 10 candidates
There are 11 candidates in the running so far, with at least two more waiting to be announced
A Morning Consult poll taken after DeSantis entered the race shows his position is only up 1% — and he still trails Trump by 38%.
DeSantis started the year by showing some early leads on Trump, but some pollsters say his reluctance to announce his candidacy, and keeping one foot in the race and one foot out, has hurt him among voters.
There are already 11 candidates in the GOP primary race. Among those actually gaining voting ground are former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and current South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
Other more distant candidates in the running are biotech millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson.
Former Vice President Mike Pence filed the appropriate documents on Monday to launch a bid for the White House – and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu revealed the same day that he would not be running in the race.
Others expected to wade through the waters of 2024 in the coming weeks are former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
