DeSantis slips, Ramaswamy surges into second-place tie: poll
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and political novice Vivek Ramaswamy are tied for second place in the GOP primary contest with 10% support apiece — four days before the contest’s first debate, according to a new national poll out Saturday.
But both Republicans are trailing far behind former president Donald Trump, who leads them both by a 46% margin, the Emerson College poll found.
With 56% of registered Republicans in his corner, Trump’s support barely budged from the 59% mark the same poll found in June — despite the three different indictments filed against him in the same time frame.
![Ron DeSantis](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/NYPICHPDPICT000023700671.jpg?w=1024)
![Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse, Jan. 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/NYPICHPDPICT000021877672-2.jpg?w=1024)
The pollster found a sharp 11% drop for DeSantis, who had the support of 21% of Republicans in the same survey two months ago — a decline that mirrored the results of other recent polls — and the rest of the field mired in the low single digits.
Meanwhile, support for Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old businessman, surged by 8% since June, the Emerson poll found.
“Ramaswamy has improved among Republican voters with a postgraduate degree, a group that has previously been part of the DeSantis’s base,” said Spencer Kimball, the poll’s executive director, and “made inroads” among GOP voters under 35.
![Results from a GOP primary poll.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/NYPICHPDPICT000025047311.jpg)
The results could presage fireworks at Wednesday’s Republican debate — where DeSantis will reportedly “take a sledgehammer” to the party’s rising star, according to a leaked campaign strategy document.
The survey of 465 registered Republican voters, conducted Aug. 16-17, was part of a national 1,000-voter poll that carried a 3% margin of error.
The full panel found Trump in a neck-and-neck general election race with President Biden, with 44% support for each of them and 12% of voters undecided.