Ron DeSantis hits new low in California polling, falls to 6%

DeSantis AP
Donald Trump is poised to take all the state's 169 delegates.

Leaders of the Ron DeSantis campaign say their operation is built for the long haul, but DeSantis is currently out of the running in one key state: California.

According to the Emerson College Poll conducted Jan. 11-14, he would have been at fourth place in the race with 6% support; however, since the exit of Vivek Ramaswamy, who had 7%, he’s in third.

Donald Trump leads the field with 62%, with 10% supporting Nikki Haley.

This poll is the latest to show declining interest in DeSantis’ candidacy in the Golden State, which is especially interesting given the debate he had with Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, the culmination of rhetorical attacks against the state.

In the University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies survey conducted Jan. 4-8, the Florida Governor had 8% support.

With 169 delegates at stake in a winner-take-all format, there appears to be little drama as to how this contest will go.

The Governor was in California earlier this fall for a presidential debate, where he also made some other news, including being condemned by the Salinas City Council ahead of a fundraising event in the city.

On a trip to the Port of Long Beach, DeSantis was flanked by truck drivers as he vowed to “take action” against California’s “electric mandates for big rigs.”

DeSantis has also used California as a public safety punching bag on the trail, both in the state and outside of it.

“When people are telling me that when they go shopping, they take off their jewelry because they don’t want to get mugged, even in nice places in L.A., that’s a huge, huge problem,” DeSantis said in Long Beach.

“I was just in San Francisco. I saw — in 20 minutes on the ground — people defecating on the sidewalk. I saw people using fentanyl. I saw people smoking crack right there in the open, right there on the street. It was a civilization in decay,” the Governor said at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event in June.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


5 comments

  • Tom

    January 18, 2024 at 10:53 am

    So all the states he spent his time insulting don’t like him and all the media he spent his time insulting won’t write favorably about him and despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars, his campaign is in the toilet. A fairly predictable outcome one would think unless you’re looking at the world through woke colored glasses.

  • Impeach Biden

    January 18, 2024 at 4:34 pm

    Kalifornia is a lost cause for any Republican. They love high taxes, insurance, real estate, homeless, store break ins, etc etc

    • Tom

      January 19, 2024 at 7:15 am

      Aside from the state taxes, that could just as easily be Florida you’re describing. My car insurance just went up $180 per year and I’ve never had an accident. House insurance is up $800 a year as well, inflation on groceries and day to day stuff is rising, car jackings, hit and runs and general mayhem involving guns is through the roof. There’s homeless all over the place to the point where a new resort complex had to empty out homeless camps across the road so the guests couldn’t see them a few weeks back.
      I get that you like the whole identity politics thing but these are American problems not just red and blue state.

    • JD

      January 19, 2024 at 9:12 am

      Ha! We have all that at the same high levels but have Mississippi incomes.

      Seems like a net negative for Florida.

      But you saved us from those damn drag queens reading banned books like dictionaries.

    • ARISTOSHARK

      January 19, 2024 at 11:30 am

      As opposed to red states, where they love overeating and hating.

Comments are closed.


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