DeSantis insists his campaign is on track as Fox News host calls out 37-point poll gap to Trump

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Ron DeSantis has refused to throw in the towel on his campaign to be the Republican pick for the next election, despite being given a sober look at the current polling numbers.

The governor of Florida was informed by Laura Ingraham on the right-wing Fox News network that he faces a 37-point deficit to Donald Trump in one early primary state.

On her show, Ms Ingraham said: “Now, governor, the latest CBS poll out of New Hampshire shows that you’re in second, albeit a distant second behind Trump ... You’re at 13 per cent, he’s at 50 per cent.”

Despite the charges against him and his loss in the 2020 vote, Mr Trump is the heavy favourite to be the GOP nominee, but Mr DeSantis says he has not given up hope.

Appearing on Tuesday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle, Mr DeSantis appeared bullish about his chances.

“This is our time for choosing,” he said. “We’ve had three straight election cycles in a row where Democrats have a playbook to beat Republicans. And if we repeat that same playbook in ’24, we’re gonna lose.”

Mr DeSantis did not appear to criticise Mr Trump directly but did highlight the “historic” high Republican vote in 2020. He added that his party would not get a “mulligan” in the next election, referencing a golf term for when a poor shot is allowed to be replayed and not counted.

Mr DeSantis launched his campaign on an anti-woke platform, championing employment and prevention of crime.

He told Ms Ingraham that he would take on Mr Trump in a debate over his record during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, he may not need to debate his rival at all with Mr Trump having been absent from the first two televised debates into the Republican nomineeship.

Mr DeSantis had a similar line when asked about the poll deficit in a previous interview.

“Well, I think if you look at the people like the corporate media, who are they going after?” Mr DeSantis said in July.

“Who do they not want to be the nominee? They’re going after me. Who’s the president of Mexico attacking because he knows who’ll 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 do not want to see as the candidate.”