A spokesperson for a pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC said the Republican Florida governor is clearly the underdog in the 2024 GOP presidential race.

Look, right now, in national polling, we are way behind. Ill be the first to admit that, Steve Cortes of the Never Back Down PAC said in a Twitter spaces hosted by the @CryptoLawyer account . I believe in being really blunt and really honest. Its an uphill battle.

DeSantis could still win in the end, Cortes said, but clearly Donald Trump is the runaway front-runner, particularly since the indictments.

The former president last month was indicted by a federal grand jury on 37 felony charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House. Earlier this year, he was indicted by a grand jury in New York in a hush money payment scheme.

His legal troubles, though, seemed to benefit him politically . An average of national polls for the Republican presidential primary compiled by polling aggregator website FiveThirtyEight shows Trump on top with 51.8%, and DeSantis in second with 23.5%.

Cortes said the gap is much narrower in the first four GOP primary states, which he said matter tremendously.

The Republican primary is a two-man contest between Trump and DeSantis, Cortes said, predicting that DeSantis will surge as voters hear from him on the campaign trail.

Were clearly the underdog, Cortes said. We are clearly running uphill, but I think we have an amazing story to tell.

Even if DeSantis eventually loses, Cortes said a tough primary will make Trump a better candidate.

I believe in competitive, well-fought primaries, he said.

Meanwhile, the first Republican presidential primary debate set for August, usually a key moment in the campaign cycle, appears in jeopardy. Trump has not committed to attending, and other candidates have voiced opposition to the Republican National Committees demand that they pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee.