Thursday, during an appearance on FNC’s “Fox News Tonight,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was pressed on his low poll numbers.
DeSantis said he was “running to win in January and February.”
“I have to ask you, Governor, this,” host Will Cain said. “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? I have several different polls here. I know you’re familiar with them, the latest being from a group entitled the Beacon Center. But we have RealClearPolitics averages as well. And while Donald Trump is above 50%, in some of these polls, 60%, your numbers are somewhere between 20 and 10%, and they have stayed there for about two months. Why is it, in your estimation, the numbers have not reflected your success in Florida?”
“Well, I think, if you look at the people like the corporate media, who are they going after?” DeSantis replied. “Who do they not want to be the nominee? They’re going after me. Who’s the president of Mexico attacking — because he knows we will 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 don’t want to see as the candidate. And so this campaign just started, but I think it’s pretty clear that I’m the guy that not only can beat Biden.”
“I’m the guy that can beat the left on all these different issues because people’s freedoms are under assault,” he continued. “We had to fight all these people in Florida. And I think, of any Republican in the country, I have the best record of defeating the left on issue after issue. And we will be making that case over the next six or seven months. I’m running to win in January and February. I’m not running to juice polling now.”
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