Marco Rubio won the state by 8 points in a year where Trump only carried it by 1 (2016). That shows that he had cross-over appeal. Yet almost every poll released this year has had Desantis with the bigger lead. I wonder why? This is not like in Texas where you can clearly see which actions of Abbott may have lost him moderate voters. In Florida, Rubio is actually more moderate than Desantis but seems to be doing worse. Is it just a testament to Deming's being a better candidate than Crist?
DeSantis doesn't have a ton of charisma in person, but he has great instincts and knows how to project himself as a strong, sure leader. Rubio comes off as a robot, disingenuously gloms onto every new GOP fad-of-the-month, and has an unpleasant voice and weird mannerisms.
