Donald Trump leads Ron DeSantis in Florida GOP primary

Former President Donald Trump leads Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and his other potential competitors in a crowded Republican primary field in Florida, a hypothetical poll shows.

The Emerson College Polling survey released Friday shows that 47% of Florida GOP primary voters support Trump in his bid for the nomination. He sits three percentage points ahead of the Sunshine State governor at 44%.

2024 Florida Republican Primary

• Asset — 47%
• DeSantis: 44%
• Pennies: 4%
• Haley—2%
• T. Scott: 1%
• Pompeo — 1%

Emerson (A-) | March 13-15 | 443RVhttps://t.co/vnTCD9RIN4 pic.twitter.com/ZgREBbOEHG

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) March 17, 2023

“While 90% of Republican voters approve of DeSantis, that doesn’t translate to a firewall of support for the former president for nomination in their home state,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College. Polling.

While Trump announced his candidacy for the White House in November, DeSantis did not declare his candidacy. Former Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are the only other Republicans to announce.

No other potential candidate eclipses the five percent mark. Former Vice President Mike Pence is backed by 4% of respondents, while 2% support Nikki Haley. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) both have 1% support.

In a race strictly between active candidates, Trump gets 79% of the responses, followed by Haley at 16% and Ramaswamy at 6%. In this scenario, 69% of DeSantis supporters flock to Trump.

This part of the poll polled 443 GOP primary voters in Florida between March 13 and 15. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

The poll also assessed potential general election matches between the top two GOP candidates and President Joe Biden among 1,158 Florida voters. Trump and Biden are deadlocked in a 2020 presidential election rematch. The two garner 44% support, while 9% would support another candidate and 3% are undecided.

DeSantis leads Biden 46% to 43%. Seven percent of voters would support someone else and four percent are undecided. The poll portion has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Emerson College also released a New Hampshire GOP presidential primary poll last week, showing Trump with a commanding 41-point lead over DeSantis in the nation’s first state GOP primary.