A Suffolk University/USA Today poll released earlier this week indicates that President Joe Biden is struggling in the pivotal swing state of Florida, suggesting that just 39 percent of residents approve of his actions. The poll also suggests that should Biden square off against Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Presidential election, DeSantis would win Florida by a margin of 52 percent to 44 percent.
While DeSantis has not announced an intention to run for the White House in ’24, he is seen as an early frontrunner to win the GOP primary. Florida’s governor and Biden have quarreled over a bevy of issues, including COVID-19 lockdown measures, illegal immigration practices, and various social policies.
Biden, notably, told reporters in January that he was not concerned about his proliferating downward trend in approval.
“I don’t believe the polls,” Biden said.
Voters largely cite Biden’s handling of the economy as the primary reason for his disapproval rate. Additionally, 58% of voters believe the country is headed down the wrong path.
“The White House kitten has a better chance of being elected in 2024 than Joe Biden does,” said RNC Spokeswoman Julia Friedland
For the first time since the recording of the metrics began, registered Republican voters outnumbered registered Democrats in Florida, erasing a decades-long advantage that Democrats previously held. Registered Republicans totaled roughly 5.1 million active voters at the beginning of November 2021, edging Democrats by around 4,000 voters, according to figures published by the Florida Division of Elections.
“At times we’ve had a hard time reaching younger voters on college campuses across the state,” a Florida Democrats Canvasser told The Capitolist. ” There are days we register fewer than ten new voters, meanwhile every major college in the state has an active Young Republicans chapter that we have to compete against. Of course, it varies from region to region, but it’s what we’re faced with at the moment.”
First and foremost, DeSantis will need to focus on retaining his governorship for a second term, as he is tasked with, in all likelihood, facing Nikki Fried or Charlie Crist in the November gubernatorial race. DeSantis leads Fried in early polls, leading by 11 and 13 percentage points in each of the most recent Redfield and Wilton polls, respectively. In all of the Democratic Primary polls conducted thus far, Fried performs worse than party opponent Charlie Crist. When looking at the Gubernatorial projections, Crist trails DeSantis by just 7 and 8 percentage points, respectively.