Dejected DeSantis Skipping Over New Hampshire, Sets Sights On South Carolina
Fresh off his historic defeat in Monday’s Iowa caucus, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is pulling back from campaigning in New Hampshire. The state hosts 2024’s first presidential primary in days, and he is now polling in dismal single digits.
According to Politico, DeSantis will instead hold events Saturday and Sunday in South Carolina. Just how bad is his New Hampshire backing for him to skip the pivotal primary state?
FiveThirtyEight revealed DeSantis is polling at a paltry average of just 5.4%. Not only is that far behind frontrunning former President Donald Trump’s 45.6%, but it also dramatically trails former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley’s 33.1%.
The obvious fallout from Chris Christie’s withdrawal from the campaign is that his anti-Trump support fell to Haley. The former New Jersey governor ran solely on his hatred of the 45th president, and his exit provided a boon to Haley’s camp.
DeSantis is apparently banking on the shaky premise that Haley is vulnerable in her home state.
She served as the South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, and survey numbers show her with a distinct advantage over her rival for second place. Haley currently draws 24.9% of Republican support in the state to DeSantis’ 12.1%.
Once considered the strongest challenger to Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, last week’s result and current polling numbers in pending primary states threw cold water on that narrative.
The Florida governor understandably pushed back at the notion that he is bypassing New Hampshire altogether.
DeSantis’ second-place finish far behind Trump was followed by most of his campaign staff relocating to South Carolina ahead of next week’s primary. However, he denied New Hampshire is off the table.
Addressing Fox News’ Alexis McAdams, DeSantis explained, “So we went to South Carolina, knocked out a couple of events and then did what we were planning to do in New Hampshire. That was somehow caricatured as ‘skipping’ New Hampshire when it wasn’t.”
He added that the events in the southern primary state were merely additions to the New Hampshire schedule.
The northern primary is set for Jan. 23, while South Carolina’s GOP voters make their preferences known Feb. 24.
