Washington Post columnist Aaron Blake walked through the staggering crash of Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R-FL) campaign over the last few months.
The argument for DeSantis once involved his keen ability to get elected against President Joe Biden. Republicans were excited, Blake explained.
"He would be Trump without the headaches," he wrote.
That possibility has now evaporated.
Looking at the numbers on FiveThirtyEight, which averages the polls together, DeSantis had a net rating of +3 in March. Today, DeSantis is "underwater," Blake said, with -10.
"After the 2022 election, polls generally showed DeSantis performing better than Trump in hypothetical matchups with Biden. And that largely continued around DeSantis’s launch," he explained.
According to a Yahoo/YouGov poll from mid-July, both Trump and DeSantis are trailing Biden by four points. It isn't an outlier, either. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll revealed DeSantis is losing ground in Ohio, where he's up only two points against Biden, while Trump is up by five. In Michigan, DeSantis falls to Biden by 13 points. Trump is down against Biden by just two.
Blake explained that the only polls that show DeSantis winning against Biden are the ones conducted by DeSantis supporters.
Right now, Trump is pulling in greater support among Republican voters after his indictments – though if it stays that way when the cases reach trial remains to be seen. DeSantis, however, is alienating moderate voters by running to the right of Trump.
"Meanwhile, Republicans, including DeSantis, have been timid in broaching these subjects for fear of alienating Trump’s base," explained Blake.
