Trump holds wide lead in New Hampshire poll ahead of primary
Former President Trump holds a wide lead in New Hampshire ahead of next week’s Republican presidential primary in the state, according to a new poll.
The new poll from the Saint Anselm College Survey Center found Trump with a majority of support, 52 percent, among likely GOP primary voters in the Granite State.
That’s roughly the same figure he scored in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, where the former president easily won with 51 percent. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) came in a distant second, followed closely by former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
In the New Hampshire poll, 51 percent of respondents who said they’ve changed whom they plan to support based on the Iowa caucuses now say they support Trump.
At the same time, 60 percent of respondents who say they’ve changed whom they’re supporting because of recent candidate exits — such as those by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) last week and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday — said they now support Haley.
Haley’s support in the state sits at 38 percent — 14 points behind Trump, according to the Saint Anselm poll.
That differs from an American Research Group poll that found Haley and Trump tied at 40 percent each ahead of the first-in-the-nation primary next week.
The latest polling averages from Decision Desk HQ and The Hill put Trump at 43 percent support in the state, followed by Haley at 34 percent and DeSantis at nearly 6 percent.
Christie and Ramaswamy dropping out of the race has “left the field” to Trump, DeSantis and Haley, said New Hampshire Institute of Politics Executive Director Neil Levesque in the poll report.
“Trump and Haley have split most of the supporters of the former candidates … However, Haley still trails by a significant margin as she faces questions about her decision to skip the New Hampshire Debate, which may deny her the best remaining chance to close the deal with the voters she needs to make up ground on the front runner,” Levesque said.
Haley said after Iowa that she would not take part in planned CNN and ABC debates in New Hampshire unless Trump — who has skipped all the party’s debates so far — participated. Both networks cancelled their events.
DeSantis notably held just 6 percent support in the Anselm poll, unchanged from the last survey — while Haley and Trump have both seen an uptick in that time.
Conducted Jan. 16, a day after the Iowa caucuses, the poll surveyed 1,398 likely New Hampshire Republican presidential primary voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percent.
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