Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has yet to announce a candidacy for president.
Instead, he has suggested that he will stay in the governor’s mansion until the end of the legislative session… and he seems to be reaping the rewards, according to a new poll.
Pollsters at Mason-Dixon surveyed 625 registered voters by phone between March 27 and March 30. The poll also surveyed 507 “regular Republican primary voters,” a deliberate over-representation. They asked these 507 voters about the Republican primary only… and they found some good news for DeSantis.
According to this poll, DeSantis would win 44 percent of voters in a presidential primary held today.
By contrast, former President Donald Trump is pulling only 39 percent of the primary vote, with 12 percent remaining undecided. Trump faced an indictment on March 31, the final day of the survey.
87 percent of primary voters have a favorable opinion of DeSantis, with only 71 percent viewing Trump favorably.
Trump has historically performed well in Florida’s Republican primaries. He won Florida’s primary in 2016, and he even finished ahead of Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from that very state.
The poll found good news for DeSantis not only as a presidential contender, but also as a governor.
According to this poll, 98 percent of registered voters recognize the governor’s name, and 59 percent of voters approve of his performance as governor, including 56 percent of Hispanic voters.
DeSantis has seen his approval rating rise four points since winning last year’s election. He’s sitting only three points below his all-time record of 62 percent, a figure from the honeymoon period immediately after his inauguration.
However, the poll also came with some limitations. The pollsters surveyed only a small sample, and they estimated a margin of error between 4 and 4.4 points.
Plus, the governor has seen his approval rating dip to 48 percent in southeast Florida, as the Florida Democrats blame their poor performance on low turnout in Miami-Dade County.
In some national polls, DeSantis is lagging further and further behind Trump.
Still, the Florida governor is on track to outperform Rubio… without even announcing a run for president.
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The Horn editorial team