ORLANDO, Fla. — A new state poll shows Gov. Ron DeSantis remains popular in Florida overall and has a 6-point lead over Trump in a potential GOP primary for president.
But it follows a string of national polls that show former President Donald Trump opening up big leads on DeSantis.
In the Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey released Tuesday, DeSantis’ approval rating in Florida was at 59%, up 4 percentage points from a poll from just before the November 2022 election. DeSantis defeated Democrat Charlie Crist by 19 points.
Another 39% in the new poll had an unfavorable view of DeSantis, with 2% not sure.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, had a 60% disapproval rating in the state, with just 35% saying they approved of his job in office. Another 5% were unsure.
Biden lost Florida to Trump in 2020 by a little more than 3 points.
But if DeSantis is running for president, which he hasn’t yet announced, he would need to defeat Trump first.
In Florida, where Trump is also a resident of Palm Beach, DeSantis had a 44% to 39% lead over the former president among registered Republican voters in a GOP primary matchup.
Another 5% preferred other candidates, and 12% were undecided.
The Mason-Dixon poll of 625 registered Florida voters was conducted from March 27 through March 30 and has a margin for error of 4 points.
Additional interviews were made to create a sample of 507 registered Republican voters for the question on the GOP primary, for which the margin of error was 4.4 points.
While DeSantis has a slight lead over Trump in their home state, he is coming off a month of poor showings against Trump nationally.
A Fox News poll from last week showed Trump as the main choice of 54% of GOP primary voters, with DeSantis in a distant second at 24%.
A Quinnipiac University poll, also from last week, gave Trump a 47% to 33% lead over DeSantis.
A Yahoo News/YouGov poll released Saturday was the first to survey respondents following Trump’s indictment on Thursday in Manhattan on charges relating to an alleged payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels.
In that poll, Trump led DeSantis by a 57% to 31% margin in a one-on-one race. In a survey including other candidates, trump leads DeSantis 52% to 21%.
Trump increased his attacks on DeSantis last week, posting three videos criticizing the governor’s handling of Florida and his poll numbers.
DeSantis also caught flak from Trump and his supporters for saying he would not get involved in any potential extradition to New York.
He later wrote in a statement that the state would not “assist” in any extradition, but state law and the U.S. Constitution limited what DeSantis could have actually done. Trump eventually chose to turn himself in on Monday anyway.
Dozens of Trump supporters rallied against DeSantis, with one yelling he should “go home” during a visit to Long Island on Saturday.
