Donald Trump has a three point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in their state, according to an Emerson College Florida poll,
In a hypothetical GOP primary field of nine candidates, Trump received 47 percent of the vote, while DeSantis, who hasn’t officially announce a run for president, received 44 percent. No other candidate was in the double digits. Former Vice-President Mike Pence comes in a distant third with just 3.5 percent of the vote, while former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley gets less than 1 percent.
“Nearly one year out from the Florida Presidential Primary, DeSantis and Trump are in a two-way race for the Republican nomination, statistically even with one another,” Spencer Kimball, the executive director of Emerson College polling said. “While 90 percent of Republican voters approve of DeSantis, that does not translate into a firewall of support over the former President for the nomination in their home state.”
If DeSantis decides not to run, Trump would easily win the nomination. In a field with just the three declared Republican presidential candidates so far: Trump, Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the former president received 79 percent of the vote, Haley a distant second with 16 percent and Ramaswamy 6 percent.
The Emerson College poll was conducted between March 13-15 among 1,153 registered Florida voters. It has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.
[Image by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images]
