Ron DeSantis slides to 16%, third place in key Iowa poll

Image via AP.

Ron DeSantis is heading into the Iowa caucuses in third place.

In the final Des Moines Register poll ahead of Monday’s vote, the Florida Governor has 16%.

That puts him behind Nikki Haley (20%), and way behind Donald Trump (48%).

This poll, conducted Jan. 7-12 of 705 likely Republican caucusgoers, is the latest survey of the race to suggest that without some miracle, Trump will emerge the winner Monday evening.

And it raises existential questions about the path forward for the Florida Governor, who is drawing just 22% with evangelicals, a voting bloc he courted but is losing by nearly 30 points to Trump.

Haley and DeSantis were tied at 17% in an InsiderAdvantage poll released Friday, each with a third of Trump’s support. That was a better survey for the Governor than either of the two that came out on Thursday, both of which showed DeSantis down by 41 points.

The cold weather will be a factor, as has been pointed out by virtually all media coverage of Monday’s vote.

DeSantis says he’s confident that the work done over the last few months will bear fruit.

“Now with this weather, I think the organization is going to matter even more because going out in negative 20 degrees, unless you’re really committed to voting, that’s an easy reason why you wouldn’t want to go,” DeSantis told Sean Hannity Thursday.

Regardless of what happens, the campaign isn’t ending Monday night. A spokesman says to expect a “long” and “scrappy” effort going forward, and DeSantis will travel to South Carolina Tuesday, then to New Hampshire thereafter.