The landscape of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination remains the same at the top, as former President Donald Trump continues to be the likeliest candidate for the Nov. 2024 ballot. 

But a handful of polls indicate that his presumptive chief rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has tumbled in the eyes of early primary contest voters, falling slightly behind three other candidates.

What You Need To Know

  • While former President Donald Trump continues to lead in polls, his GOP rivals have shuffled places — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose support is slipping both in early primary states like New Hampshire and South Carolina and nationally

  • DeSantis is polling at 10% support in a recent CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, down from 23% in July, and now lower than competitors Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and Chris Christie

  • The Florida governor is also behind Trump and Haley in South Carolina

  • DeSantis still sits in second place in national polling averages, but his support has slipped by nearly 10 points since July

A new CNN/University of New Hampshire poll places DeSantis at 10% support, behind tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (13%), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (12%) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (11%). According to CNN, DeSantis’s most recent placement comes from a 13% drop in support since July. New Hampshire’s primary is scheduled for March 12.

Overall, he still remains favorable among a majority of likely GOP primary voters, according to the poll — unlike Christie, who holds 67% unfavorability among likely GOP primary voters, and former Vice President Mike Pence, who holds 62% unfavorability on top of polling at just 2% of likely primary voter support.

A Fox Business poll also has DeSantis at 10% in South Carolina, which holds its Republican presidential primary on Feb. 24, behind Trump (46%) and Haley (18%), who has the name advantage from being a past governor of the state. The survey found Haley is gaining momentum (up four percentage points since July) while DeSantis is fading (down three points). Sen. Tim Scott, also from South Carolina, was just behind DeSantis at 9%.

FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average still has DeSantis in second place, but it, too, shows he’s headed in the wrong direction — he’s pulling in 14.2% as of Sept. 20, down from 23.3% in July. Meanwhile, Trump, Ramaswamy, Haley and Christie have gained support.