A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s Governor has a big problem in the Big Sky state.
At least that’s the takeaway from a new poll of 418 Republicans and independents who say they’re going to vote in Montana’s GOP Presidential Primary next June, a late-season event where 33 delegates are at stake.
In a new poll from J.L. Partners, Ron DeSantis has 15% support, a distant second place behind Donald Trump, who has 52%.
Though DeSantis is nearly 40 points behind the former President, he can take some comfort in the fact that other candidates are further back.
Vivek Ramaswamy has 6% support, while Nikki Haley, Chris Christie and Tim Scott each have 3%. Mike Pence has 2% support and Doug Burgum, Governor of neighboring North Dakota, has just 1%.
DeSantis picks up support from other candidates in a hypothetical two-way race, which may be more likely given the late placement of the Primary. But he is still behind Trump, 56% to 29%, with the remainder undecided.
In terms of favorability, DeSantis is well positioned, with 75% approval against 19% disapproval. That’s comparable to Trump, who has 78% approval and 21% disapproval among the expected Primary voters.
The poll was conducted via a number of modalities, at 17% live landline, 30% live cell, 47% SMS-to-Web, and 6% in-app game polling.
Compared to a previous poll of the state, DeSantis isn’t as strong against Trump as he was earlier this summer.
A Public Policy Polling survey showed Trump with 46% support and DeSantis with 23% in a survey of 510 likely Republican Primary voters conducted on June 19 and 20.
“In a head to head with DeSantis his lead declines from 23 points to 12 at 49-37. DeSantis picks up 14 points while Trump only picks up 3 in a two-man race,” the PPP polling memo said, indicating DeSantis has lost ground in a binary battle over time.
