Florida Governor Ron DeSantis may be competing for "second place" in next week's first Republican presidential debate as a new poll shows him trailing former President Donald Trump.
The Victory Insights poll published on Friday found Trump with 60.8 percent backing among registered likely Republican primary voters, while the Florida governor had just 12.1 percent support.
The poll comes after the former president appeared to rule out participating in GOP primary debates and cited the late President Ronald Reagan, who famously skipped the Republican primary debate in Iowa in 1980.
"This is Donald Trump's race to lose," said Ben Galbraith, senior pollster at Victory Insights in a Friday polling memo.
"With 3 in 5 GOP voters already saying they're backing Trump, and his most serious challenger barely holding on to double-digit support, the former president is in an excellent position," he said.
"Assuming Trump doesn't participate in the first RNC-sanctioned debate next week, the candidates on stage won't really be fighting for the nomination—they'll be fighting for second place," Galbraith added.
The Victory Insights survey also found that other GOP presidential hopefuls trailed Trump, with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on 6 percent, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on 4 percent and former Vice President Mike Pence also with 4 percent support.
The polling memo noted that no other candidate had more than 2 percent support and 8 percent were undecided.
In a head to head matchup, Trump led DeSantis with 64.6 percent support from GOP voters, compared to 23.2 percent for the Florida governor and 12.3 percent of respondents who said they were undecided.
The poll was conducted from August 15 to 17 among 825 registered likely GOP primary voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.
Newsweek has reached out to the DeSantis campaign via email for comment.
Writing on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump cited the example of former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, as he seemed to suggest he would not take part in debates.
"Many people are asking whether or not I will be doing the DEBATES? ALL AMERICANS have been clamoring for a President of extremely High Intelligence," Trump wrote.
"As everyone is aware, my Poll numbers, over a 'wonderful' field of Republican candidates, are extraordinary. In fact, I am leading the runner up, whoever that may now be, by more than 50 Points," he added.
"Reagan didn't do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate? I'M YOUR MAN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
DeSantis has qualified for the first Republican debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this coming Wednesday after meeting polling and donations requirements.
The New York Times reported on Thursday on a document that appeared to be a debate strategy for DeSantis that had been posted on the website of Axiom Strategist, a company closely connected to pro-DeSantis Super PAC Never Back Down.
It was deleted from the website following The New York Times' report.
The document advised the governor to "attack Joe Biden and the media 3-5 times" and "defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack" as well as "hammer Vivek Ramaswamy in a response."
Newsweek has contacted DeSantis, Axiom Strategies and Never Back Down for comment by email about the document.
To qualify for the debate on August 23, candidates need to have a minimum of 40,000 unique donors, including at least 200 unique donors each from 20 or more states or territories.
GOP candidates also need to poll at least 1 percent in three national polls. Alternatively, they need a minimum of 1 percent in two national polls and in early state polls from two of the following: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more