Ron DeSantis hits new low in North Carolina polling

Image via EOG/@GovRonDeSantis

Ron DeSantis is struggling in GOP Primary polling in North Carolina, with the latest survey from the John Locke Foundation being his worst showing yet.

The Florida Governor has just 12% support in the poll of 600 likely Republican Primary voters, which was conducted Oct. 8 and Oct. 9. That puts him 40 points behind Donald Trump’s 52%, and in a statistical tie with Nikki Haley’s 11% given the poll’s margin of error of +/- 3.88 percentage points.

An additional 12% of respondents were undecided, with Vivek Ramaswamy’s 5% good for fourth place among actual candidates. The pollster calls the results a “runaway” for Trump.

“Trump still has a hold on North Carolina Republicans,” said Locke CEO Donald Bryson. “With a lead like this, it is hard to imagine what would be required for another Republican candidate to pass him in the polls to win North Carolina’s GOP delegates.”

While North Carolina apportions its 75 delegates proportionally after its March Primary, the current trend suggests Trump will get the majority of them, with other candidates battling for scraps.

DeSantis lost nearly half of his support from a May survey from the same pollster, in which he had 22% support. Trump actually lost 3 points from the 55% he had back then.

Meanwhile, this survey finds DeSantis 1 point below the 13% he had in a September poll from Meredith College. That pollster described Trump’s lead as “nearly insurmountable.”

The Governor has been endorsed by 19 public officials in the state. State Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. is on board, as are state Sens. Danny Britt, Jim Burgin and Bobby Hanig. State Reps. Jennifer Balkcom, Allen Chesser, Kevin Crutchfield, Kenneth Fontenot, Keith Kidwell, Jarrod Lowery, Jeff McNeely, Dennis Riddell, Steve Ross, Jason Saine, Wayne Sasser, Sam Watford, David Willis and Matthew Winslow are also endorsing.

DeSantis has traveled to the state this cycle, even addressing local issues, though that doesn’t seem to have helped him in polls.

During his most recent appearance in North Carolina, the Governor made news by vowing to restore “the name of Fort Bragg to our great military base in Fayetteville, North Carolina.”

“And thank the people that have served there. And they’re proud of their service there. It’s an iconic name and iconic base. We’re not going to let political correctness run amok in North Carolina,” DeSantis said to cheers.

Fort Bragg was renamed “Fort Liberty” on the recommendation of the Department of Defense’s Commission on the Naming of Items. The goal was to change names of facilities “that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.”