Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis is cratering in opinion polls ahead of the first debate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
The poll, from Yahoo News/YouGov, shows DeSantis with only 12% support from Republican voters in August 2023. That’s almost half of the 23% support he had in July 2023.
Donald Trump has a huge lead over DeSantis, despite his recent criminal indictment. DeSantis has the support of 52% of Republicans polled, a total of 40 percentage points higher than DeSantis.
DeSantis’ campaign has been plagued with mistakes and gaffes, with the candidate’s awkward public persona being singled out by many observers. DeSantis has also largely refrained from attacking Trump, raising questions about what truly differentiates him from the leading candidate.
Trump leads in Republican support despite losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. Trump failed to receive a majority of the vote in both elections where he was the Republican nominee (2016, against Hillary Clinton, and in 2020).
One of the first political bloggers in the world, Oliver Willis has operated OliverWillis.com since 2000. Contributor at Media Matters for America and The American Independent. Follow on Twitter at @owillis. Full bio.