Poll: Ron DeSantis still competitive with Donald Trump among Utah Republicans

Image via AP.

Florida’s Governor continues to hold his own in Presidential Primary polling from the Beehive State.

A new poll of Republicans from Utah shows Ron DeSantis only 8 points behind former President Donald Trump, 27% to 19%.

DeSantis still has a strong hold on second place. Former Vice President Mike Pence (9%) is in third, while Vivek Ramaswamy and former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney each have 5% support.

The Governor performs best among “very conservative” voters (29%) and active Mormons (23%, tied with Trump).

The poll, conducted by Dan Jones and Associates and first published in Deseret News, was conducted between Aug. 7 and Aug. 14, surveying 476 registered voters. The poll has a +/- 4.49-percentage-point margin of error.

It’s better for DeSantis than another recent poll of the race.

An August Noble Predictive Insights (NPI) survey of 301 Republicans shows DeSantis with 18% support, 30 points behind former President Trump.

DeSantis has proclaimed Florida’s affinity for the state, which residents here typically don’t think about much. At the Utah Republican Convention in April, he contended his home state is the “Utah of the Southeast.”

“Utah is one of the best governed, best-performing states in the United States. You have a sound economy, you promote a good business environment, you stress the importance of education, you have fiscal and budgetary stability and you have safe communities,” DeSantis contended.

“And I think underlying the success of Utah has been a commitment to freedom like Florida. Utah proves that freedom works,” DeSantis added. “Now over the last few years since I’ve been Governor, people have looked to Florida for leadership in a variety of different ways.”

DeSantis also said he “was recently visiting with some folks in Iowa and people said, you know, Iowa, they’re really the Florida of the Midwest with all the conservative stuff they’re doing. Well, let me just tell you maybe it’s a little secret, but it might just be that Florida is the Utah of the Southeast.”

More recently, DeSantis defended Florida’s education standards regarding the teaching of slavery and its alleged benefits to the enslaved during a Utah press conference where legislators were endorsing him, saying “they’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”