A host at the usually Ron DeSantis-friendly Fox News asked the Florida governor about his low poll numbers as former President Donald Trump still dominates the Republican primary polls.
Mr DeSantis is currently the runner-up in the GOP polling, but he’s behind Mr Trump by a substantial margin with recent polls showing Trump leading by 27 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight.
“Why do you think despite those successes so far, it hasn’t been reflected in your polling for your 2024 run for president of the United States?” host Will Cain asked Mr DeSantis on Fox News Tonight on Thursday evening.
“And while Donald Trump is above 50 per cent – in some of these polls, 60 per cent – your numbers are somewhere between 20 per cent and 10 per cent. And they’ve stayed there for about two months. Why is it in your estimation the numbers have not reflected your success in Florida?” he added.
“Well, I think if you look at the people like the corporate media, who are they going after?” Mr DeSantis responded. “Who do they not want to be the nominee? They’re going after me. Who’s the president of Mexico attacking because he knows who’ll be strong on the border and hold him accountable and the cartels? He’s going after me. So, I think if you look at all these people that are responsible for a lot of the ills in our society, they’re targeting me as the person they do not want to see as the candidate.”
“This campaign just started but I think it’s pretty clear that I’m the guy that not only can beat [President Joe] Biden – I’m the guy that can beat the left on all these different issues because people’s freedoms are under assault,” he added.
Mr DeSantis said he was “running to win in January or February ... not to juice polling now”.
Mr Cain noted that others have said that Mr DeSantis has so far been unable to connect with the voters and asked the governor to outline why.
Mr DeSantis pointed to his fundraising numbers and said his campaign was just beginning.
“We’ve got a huge amount of support to be able to take the case to the people,” he said. “We really haven’t started that yet.”
While announcing his campaign in late May, Mr DeSantis has been visiting the early primary states since at least the beginning of this year, including on a book tour.
