![Utah AP DeSantis](https://floridapolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Utah-AP-DeSantis.jpg)
Republicans in the Volunteer State don’t have their hands up to vote for Ron DeSantis just yet.
According to a new Beacon Poll from Tennessee, former President Donald Trump effectively has a nearly 4-to-1 advantage over the Florida Governor.
Trump is the choice of 63% of Republicans in the survey fielded between Oct. 5 and Oct. 16, with DeSantis garnering 16% support, below the 20% of respondents who wanted other candidates or were unsure of their preference
If there is good news for DeSantis in this survey, it’s that he has more support than in a poll from Beacon conducted last June. In that previous poll, the Governor mustered just 12% support.
The March 5, 2024, Primary is a “winner-take-all” affair, with 58 delegates to the Republican National Convention at stake. As of now, that Tennessee trove of votes is Trump’s for the taking.
DeSantis has appeared in Tennessee during this campaign, but got the most news coverage for an event on an interstate highway rather than a formal speech.
The Governor’s motorcade was involved in a multicar accident in Chattanooga in July but was uninjured. The accident briefly stalled DeSantis’ progress to a campaign event in the East Tennessee city.
At the time, Team DeSantis said it appreciated “the prayers and well wishes of the nation for his continued protection while on the campaign trail.”
Earlier in July, DeSantis delivered a keynote speech for an event held by the Tennessee Republican Party. Among the highlights: a promise to maintain fiscal discipline in a manner unseen since Ronald Reagan.
“We need to have a President that can go into Washington and will actually hold the line on excessive spending and we haven’t had that probably since Ronald Reagan,” DeSantis said.
“If you look at the debt that’s been accumulated, yeah, we can sit here and hit (Joe) Biden and he deserves a lot of it. But it wasn’t just the Democrats. Republicans and Democrats in D.C. are both responsible for putting us $32 trillion dollars in debt. It’s time to stop and go a different direction.”
3 comments
MH/Duuuval
October 26, 2023 at 2:09 pm
“We need to have a President that can go into Washington and will actually hold the line on excessive spending and we haven’t had that probably since Ronald Reagan,” DeSantis said.
Federal debt rose dramatically with Ronnie R in office — to some extent the consequence of the yuge tax break he got for his fellow millionaires.
SteveHC
October 26, 2023 at 2:23 pm
The photo above reminds me of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman comic book character. HE “ran for President” too, but was more popular than DeSantis.
My Take
October 26, 2023 at 9:54 pm
“What? Me worry?” could easily be his motto too.
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