Poll: Ron DeSantis a close second in Pennsylvania GOP Primary

New polling of Pennsylvania Republicans suggests Ron DeSantis has a chance in that state’s GOP Presidential Primary.

A survey from Franklin and Marshall College’s Center for Opinion Research, first reported by PoliticsPA, shows DeSantis pulling 34% support in a crowded field of candidates. That puts him just 6 points behind Donald Trump, a stronger performance than many recent state polls.

The survey of 266 Republicans (part of larger polling) was in the field from March 27 through April 7, encompassing the period before and after the former President’s indictment and arrest.

During the period of the poll’s administration, DeSantis took a trip to the Keystone State. The Governor addressed Republicans at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg, offering largely familiar remarks in a speech that was well-received by the GOP faithful.

In recent weeks, DeSantis has played up his roots in the Rust Belt regions of Pennsylvania and neighboring Ohio as being key to surviving the left-wing crucibles of Yale and Harvard Law School.

During a recent appearance with Mark Levin on the Fox News Channel, DeSantis explained how the region’s values formed him and buoyed his innate sense of conservatism.

“My father’s from western Pennsylvania, my mother’s from Northeastern Ohio. So that is like steel country. That is like blue-collar salt of the earth and, as you know, Mark, Florida’s very eclectic. People kind of come from all over, we do have a culture and so I grew up in that culture, but really it was kind of those Rust Belt values that raised me.”

He offered a similar reminiscence in his best-selling The Courage to be Free.

“I was geographically raised in Tampa Bay,” DeSantis writes, “but culturally my upbringing reflected the working-class communities in western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio — from weekly church attendance to the expectation that one would earn his keep. This made me God-fearing, hard-working and America-loving.”

Despite DeSantis playing up his Pennsylvania connections and the competitive General Election polling from the Commonwealth Foundation, the most recent poll of GOP Primary preferences suggests he has ground to make up. In a March Public Policy Polling survey, 49% of respondents say they back Trump, with 31% saying they prefer the Florida Governor.