Poll: DeSantis closes gap with Trump in Iowa by 14 percent

Internal polling from Ron DeSantis backers shows Florida governor gaining ground against primary competitor Donald Trump in the first-in-the-nation primary contest state of Iowa. From pre-presidential announcement to post, a new Never Back Down PAC poll shared with Axios shows DeSantis closing the gap between front-runner Trump by 14 percent. In mid-May, before DeSantis officially announced his presidential candidacy at a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk, he earned 24 percent in Iowa polls compared to Trump’s 48 percent — a 24 percent difference.

Just a few weeks later, after launching his campaign on May 24, the Florida governor earned 29 percent of likely Iowa caucus attendees to Trump’s 39 percent. Now the governor is in second place with only 10 percent between him and the former president, while the rest of the field falls further behind the two leaders. But when the other candidates were taken out of the equation and DeSantis and Trump were placed in a head-to-head contest, NBC PAC found that the two frontrunners were effectively tied in Iowa — compared to the governor’s 14-point deficit in mid-May. .

Zooming out to the national level, polls show that DeSantis is usually at least 20 points behind Trump, with the rest of the field failing to get into the double digits. A new CNN poll conducted the day of DeSantis’s announcement showed Trump up from 56 percent to 26 percent.

The new NBD polls come from DeSantis’ first official campaign sweep through early primary contest states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He will travel on to Nevada later in June. Trump also went to Iowa last week, overlapping DeSanti’s swing. Despite the optimistic showing from the main PAC backing DeSantis’ primary GOP bid, other polls show he hasn’t earned the expected post-announcement boost.

A Morning Consult poll conducted after DeSantis entered the race showed his ranking only increased by 1 percent — and still trailing Trump by 38 percent. DeSantis started the year with some early lead over Trump, but some pollsters claim his reluctance to announce his candidacy, and staying one foot in the race and one foot out, hurt him among voters.

There are already 11 candidates in the GOP primary race. Among those who actually earn some voting rights are former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and current South Carolina senator Tim Scott. Other more likely candidates in the running include biotech millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Former Vice President Mike Pence filed the necessary paperwork Monday to bid for the White House — and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu revealed on the same day that he will not be in the race. Others expected to enter the 2024 waters in the coming weeks include former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12164843/Poll-DeSantis-CLOSES-gap-Trump-Iowa-14-kicking-campaign.html?ito=msngallery

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