Washington: In an interesting development in US presidential race, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy find themselves tied at the second place in the Republican presidential field in a new poll, The Hill reported.

An Emerson College poll showed DeSantis and Ramaswamy tied at 10 per cent each, trailing former President Donald Trump, who leads with 56 per cent.

It is pertinent to mention that DeSantis, who was in second place, despite registering 21 percent in June has witnessed a huge fall as he currently stands at 10 per cent currently according to Emerson College Polling. On the other hand, Ramaswamy has risen to the second spot from a mere 2 per cent then.

Pollsters also found somewhat more “shaky support” among DeSantis supporters than among those for Ramaswamy. Almost half of Ramaswamy backers said they will definitely vote for him, while only a third of DeSantis supporters said the same, according to The Hill.

Meanwhile, more than 80 per cent of Trump supporters said they will definitely vote for the former president.

The poll’s release comes as a leaked memo from the super PAC supporting DeSantis’ candidacy, ‘Never Back Down’, urged DeSantis to “take a sledgehammer” to Ramaswamy, The Hill reported.

Some polling has shown Ramaswamy closing in on DeSantis for second place, and the memo appears to acknowledge a few other candidates also gaining momentum behind the Florida governor.

“Another boring, establishment attack from Super PAC-creation ‘Robot Ron’ who is literally taking lame, pre-programmed attack lines against me for next week’s debate. ‘Hammer Ramaswamy,'” the Ohio entrepreneur said on X (formerly Twitter), while responding to the memo.

Emerson College Polling Executive Director Spencer Kimball said in a release that Ramaswamy has made improvements in voters with postgraduate degrees, taking 17 per cent of that group, and with younger voters, winning 16 per cent of those younger than 35, The Hill reported.

Meanwhile, DeSantis dropped in his support among postgraduate voters from 38 per cent in June to 14 percent now and only had 15 per cent of those under 35, as per The Hill.

The release further stated that DeSantis’s drop is similar to that of Emerson’s New Hampshire poll that showed former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) surpassing DeSantis by 1 point for second place in the state, a statistical tie.

DeSantis, Ramaswamy and several other GOP presidential candidates will have their clearest opportunity yet to stand out on a national stage at the first Republican primary debate next week, especially with Trump seemingly planning to skip it.

More than 80 percent of Republican primary voters said they plan to watch the debate, The Hill reported.

The poll was conducted from August 16-17 among 1000 registered voters, including 465 who said they plan to vote in their state’s Republican primary or caucus. The credibility interval was 3 points.