Ron DeSantis hits new low in Ohio GOP Primary poll, at 8% and in third place

GIRARD, OH — AUGUST 19: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida speaks at the Unite and Win Rally that also featured Ohio Republican nominee for US Senate J.D. Vance, August 19, 2022, at the Metroplex Expo Center in Girard, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal)

Ron DeSantis has touted his Rust Belt roots in Ohio, but Republicans don’t seem moved in the Buckeye State.

A new poll of 468 Republican voters shows that fewer than one in ten of those who intend to participate in the state’s GOP Presidential Primary on March 19 plan to vote for the Florida Governor.

“In the Republican Primary, former President Donald Trump leads the field with 62% support, followed by Nikki Haley at 10%, Ron DeSantis at 8%, Vivek Ramaswamy with 6%, and Chris Christie with 2%. 10% are undecided,” Emerson College notes.

This is the worst poll in the Buckeye State yet for DeSantis, and the winner-take-all structure of the Primary means that Trump is almost certain to sweep the state’s 78 delegates.

Ohio Northern University (ONU) released a poll earlier this month that showed the Governor with 10% support, which was good for second at the time.

Earlier this year, DeSantis polled better, but was still far behind the former President.

A USA Today survey conducted July 9 – 12 by Suffolk University showed Trump leading DeSantis by just 23 points, at 48% to 25%.

A June poll from East Carolina University saw Trump leading DeSantis 59% to 15%.

DeSantis has made political appearances in Ohio this year, albeit before the formal launch of his presidential campaign. He visited the state while South Florida was dealing with historic flooding in the Spring.

The Governor, addressing the Butler County Republican Party at its Lincoln Day Dinner, said in April he represented “Ohio values.”

“I can stand here representing Ohio values because the two most important women in my life (are from Ohio),” DeSantis said. “My mother is from Youngstown and my wife is from Troy, and so my family reflects your family.”

The Governor also touted his Buckeye State ties in his memoir, “The Courage to be Free.”

“I was geographically raised in Tampa Bay,” DeSantis writes. “But culturally, my upbringing reflected the working-class communities in western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio — from weekly church attendance to the expectation that one would earn his keep. This made me God-fearing, hard-working and America-loving.”

During an appearance touting the book with the Fox News Channel’s Mark Levin, DeSantis explained how the region’s values formed him and buoyed his innate sense of conservatism.

“My father’s from western Pennsylvania, my mother’s from Northeastern Ohio. So that is, like, steel country. That is like blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth. And, as you know, Mark, Florida’s very eclectic. People kind of come from all over. We do have a culture, and so I grew up in that culture, but really it was kind of those Rust Belt values that raised me.”

Yet despite the cloying appeals to regional loyalties, it’s becoming abundantly clear DeSantis’ “steel country” ties don’t mean much in the Buckeye State.