(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis may soon be forced to wave goodbye to his Republican presidential nomination hopes as a new poll has found that he has collapsed even further and is in third place with GOP primary voters in the all-important state of South Carolina, one of the early-voting states that usually narrows the field of candidates.
The September public opinion survey shows DeSantis now registers only 10% support among Republican primary voters in South Carolina, behind former President Donald Trump with 46% and the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, with 18%.
According to the previous Fox poll, Haley was ahead of DeSantis in her home state already in July. However, her lead was only one percentage point back then, at 14% to 13% for Florida’s governor.
The former governor and US ambassador to the UN now enjoys an 8-point lead on DeSantis, Breitbart News points out in a report.
The September Fox survey shows former President Donald Trump’s voter support in South Carolina decreased by 2 points compared with July. However, he still has a 28-point lead over the second-closest 2024 GOP nomination competitor.
The latest poll indicates that South Carolina’s other home-state candidate for the presidency, US Senator Tim Scott, went down a point, from 10% in July to 9% in September.
The survey established the majority of South Carolina primary voters, 58%, declared they would “definitely” support Trump, while 33% said they would choose DeSantis.
Florida’s governor failed to capture the top spot with GOP primary voters in the Palmetto State, even among second-choice candidates.
When asked to pick a candidate in a scenario in which Trump wasn’t in the race, 27% chose Haley, 22% went for DeSantis, and 14% selected Scott.
The September Fox News poll in South Carolina was conducted among 809 Republican primary voters and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
“It comes as DeSantis fails to build momentum, even in the first three states, despite identifying that as his strategy months ago, in July,” Breitbart comments.
It adds that the Florida governor’s failure to gain traction in the early-voting states “has even confused” his potential megadonors, such as billionaire Ken Griffin.
“I don’t know his strategy. It’s not clear to me what voter base he is intending to appeal to,” Griffin has said.
According to a recent University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll, DeSantis has also collapsed to fifth place with GOP voters in New Hampshire.
