The troubles for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign are still mounting, with the latest national poll of GOP voters showing he has officially fallen to third place behind businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Cygnal, a GOP pollster, released a survey of 2,000 likely general election voters showing that Ramaswamy now commands 11 percent of support compared to 10 percent for Gov. DeSantis. Both are far behind former President Donald Trump, who sits at 53 percent support, but the shift reflects a growing pessimism of DeSantis by the subsection of GOP voters who continue to look for an alternative in the race.
Since beginning his campaign in February, Ramaswamy has donned the image of a dark horse candidate willing to outwork his opponents and take down protestors in a primary that was originally framed as a two-man race between Trump and DeSantis. However, recent falters by the Florida Governor, including a glitch-ridden online rollout and the recent firing of his campaign manager and one-third of his entire staff, have lent credence to Ramaswamy’s argument that he is prepared to step in should Republicans change their mind about Trump.
A key to Ramaswamy’s success has been an unabashed defense of the former president, something Trump voters have embraced as they look for loyalty in the crowded GOP field. During President Trump’s last two federal indictments, Ramaswamy pledged to pardon Trump if elected and filed a Freedom of Information Act request alleging a politicization of the cases by special counsel Jack Smith.
Governor DeSantis, by comparison, has struggled to define himself in the race without being overly critical of President Trump in the eyes of voters. Earlier this week, the Florida governor took heat for claiming Trump lost the 2020 election, a litmus test among GOP voters who hold firm to the belief that the former president was unfairly denied a second term. Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, who originally propped up DeSantis as an alternative to Trump, has begun to sour on the governor’s prospects as his fall in national and local polls continued. The opening provides Ramaswamy with plenty of room to expand his profile during the Republican National Committee’s first debate, set to be held later this month in Milwaukee.