Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is closing in on former President Donald Trump, according to recent polls, priming him for a 2024 White House race.
Reporting by The Hill on a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll shows the Florida Governor at 28 percent support, up 11 points from a similar poll conducted last month.
The poll surveys Republicans, asking them to lend support to a potential candidate in a hypothetical GOP primary.
Trump has been losing support in the polls, plummeting 9 points to 46 percent; however, he still holds an 18-point lead over DeSantis.
Co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll relayed how DeSantis was “cutting significantly” into Trump’s lead, noting that it would be a tight race that Trump could lose.
The former President — who, last week, announced his third bid for the White House — has a challenger in DeSantis, who hasn’t confirmed whether he will make a 2024 White House bid of his own.
Trump’s plan to announce on November 15 centered on a victorious midterm. The former President backed candidates in nearly a dozen high-profile races, and many of these Trump-endorsed candidates lost, leading to a dismal midterm result. That didn’t deter Trump from following through on his plan, despite recent figures pointing to a decline in favorable opinion toward him.
Since October, Trump’s favorability has decreased by five percentage points to 44 percent, while those who think unfavorable of the former President has increased to nearly half — 49 percent.
