TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Governor Ron DeSantis would crush President Joe Biden in Florida if the 2024 presidential election were held today, a new poll suggests.
A Florida Chamber of Commerce poll released Thursday showed DeSantis holds a commanding 11-point lead over Biden in the Sunshine State. While 49 percent of respondents said they would vote for their governor if the election were today, just 38 percent chose the president.
APPROVAL RATINGS
Approval ratings for both politicians reinforced the head-to-head matchup, showing 55 percent for DeSantis – including 81 percent of registered Republicans and 59 percent of independents – compared to only 44 percent for Biden. More than half (55 percent) of all independent voters said they disapproved of the president’s performance after two years.
Among Hispanic voters, DeSantis earned a 51 percent approval rating – seven points ahead of Biden’s 41 percent. The Chamber surveyed 608 likely voters over the phone between February 10–19, 2023. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.
MOMENTUM BUILDS FOR DESANTIS 2024
DeSantis is widely expected to make a presidential run in 2024, but has not yet publicly thrown his name into the mix.
The new poll joins several others that indicate recent attacks from former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley have not made a major dent in the governor’s perception among voters in his home state.
A national WPA Intelligence poll released Wednesday showed DeSantis leading all candidates by at least 9 points. He tallied 40 percent compared to 31 percent and Haley’s 8 percent. In a head-to-head matchup, the survey participants preferred DeSantis over Trump by a whopping 24 points – with the governor claiming 57 percent and Trump earning 33 percent.
On Friday, a University of California Berkeley poll had DeSantis 8 points ahead of Trump in a hypothetical 2024 race.
In November, DeSantis downplayed Trump’s criticism as “noise.”
“Really what matters is – are you leading, are you getting in front of issues, are you delivering results for people… and are you standing up for folks,” the governor said. “If you do that, none of that stuff matters.”
