On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign slammed former President Donald Trump’s claim that DeSantis intended to drop out of the race to challenge a fellow Republican for a U.S. Senate seat, calling the claim “fake news.”
“Rumors are strong in political circles that Ron DeSanctimonious, whose Presidential run is a shambles, and whose poll numbers have absolutely crashed, putting him 3rd and 4th in some states, will be dropping out of the Presidential race in order to run, in Florida, against Rick Scott for Senate. Now that’s an interesting one, isn’t it?” Trump posted on Truth Social.
In response, Bryan Griffin, the Press Secretary for the DeSantis Campaign tweeted, “This is fake news. Clearly, Donald Trump and his army of consultants are panicked about [DeSantis’] winning debate performance and the strong momentum that has followed.
“They know this is a two-man race, and we will carry this on to a win in this presidential primary,” he added. “Instead of pushing fake news from New Jersey, the Trump campaign should be focused on getting their candidate on the campaign trail in Iowa and on the debate stage before it’s too late.”
DeSantis’ campaign appears to be gaining traction following the first GOP primary, which Trump skipped, opting instead to do an interview with Tucker Carlson.
New data from a FiveThirtyEight/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that Republican voters who watched the debate gave DeSantis a slight edge over political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy. DeSantis garnered 29% of the vote while Ramaswamy received 26%, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley received 15%.
Additionally, DeSantis gained ground in total support among those who watched the debate, with those saying they would consider voting for him rising from 63% to 67.5%, while Trump lost ground among debate watchers, from 66.2% to 61.4%
The poll also measured candidates’ favorable and unfavorable ratings among those who watched the debate. DeSantis had the highest overall favorable rating at 72.4% and the highest net favorable rating at 47%. Haley’s net favorable rating shot up 13 percentage points from 26% to 39%. Ramaswamy, meanwhile, lost nine percentage points, 37% to 28%, and Trump’s dipped from 31% to 24%.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) had the lowest unfavorable rating at 23.2% while DeSantis had the second lowest unfavorable number at 26.8%. Scott had the second best net favorable rating at 42%.
RealClearPolitics averages show DeSantis sitting in a comfortable second place, but Trump holds a drastic lead over the rest of the field, topping 50% in most polls.
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