New poll out of California is the strongest for Ron DeSantis in weeks

Image via HBO/Bill Maher.

Golden State polling still isn’t great for Ron DeSantis, but a new survey of California Republicans shows potential room for optimism.

In a Data Viewpoint poll fielded Oct. 1, the Florida Governor is still a distant second to Donald Trump, but with some potentially meaningful portents.

For starters, the survey shows DeSantis at 18%, which is better than the 14% the Governor had in a Public Policy Institute of California survey last month. And its better than the 16% DeSantis had in a September poll from Berkeley’s Institute of Government Studies.

Meanwhile, the new poll suggests that Trump may fall short of the 50% he needs to take all 169 GOP Delegates at stake when the Golden State holds its Primary next year. The former President is at 49.8% in this survey, meaning that DeSantis (and Nikki Haley, who has 15% support) may be able to take some of the state’s delegate trove.

The Governor was in California last week, where he debated other Republican presidential candidates, held fundraisers and made news on a number of occasions.

On a trip to the Port of Long Beach, DeSantis was flanked by truck drivers as he made the case that California is the “petri dish of leftism” in the country. If elected President, he vowed to “take action” against California’s “electric mandates for big rigs.”

Noting California’s own “rolling blackouts,” he predicted that EVs would have a “huge, huge problem” in situations where electricity was out. He stressed his own experience in power restoration to argue for “reliable energy” nationwide.

He spoke to the California Republican Convention, where he rehashed familiar gripes against the University of Florida’s football team, saying it could do a “little bit better” on the field.

DeSantis also tweaked Donald Trump’s claim that Trump was responsible for Florida going Republican.

“I understand that one of my residents was here earlier saying that he turned Florida red. All I will say is Ronald Reagan made the point. There’s no limit to what you can do when you don’t care who gets the credit,” DeSantis harrumphed. “I just wish if he was the one that turned Florida red that he wouldn’t have turned Georgia and Arizona blue, because that’s not been good for us at all.”

DeSantis also appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO program, an appearance more notable for what the long-time comedian and talk show host said than anything else.

“If your campaign was going well, you wouldn’t be on this show,” Maher quipped, a seeming reference to the Governor’s penchant for friendly interviewers in recent years.

Maher also got in a dig about DeSantis’ debate next month with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“You know, he’s taller and better looking than you,” the host quipped.