Donald Trump has maintained a formidable lead in the influential New Hampshire primary, an exclusive poll shows, but a new challenger is emerging there as his top competitor: former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
The USA TODAY/Boston Globe/Suffolk University survey of likely voters in the first-in-the-nation Republican primary finds Trump at 49% and Haley at 19%. While that gap of 30 percentage points is daunting, she has surged ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has lost his standing he once held as the dominant alternative to Trump.
DeSantis has dropped to 10% in the poll.
"I'm not 100% with Nikki; just with what I've followed so far, she's the one that's closest to what I would like to see in the president," said David Paquette, 72, a retired engineer from Atkinson, N.H., who was among those surveyed. A political independent, he likes DeSantis' record in Florida and is considering him, too. "He has a lot of great programs that he's actually implemented."
The poll of 500 likely Republican primary voters, taken by landline and cell phone Thursday through Monday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 points. Independents, who are permitted to vote in New Hampshire primaries, made up 40% of the sample; 60% were Republicans.
These voters split almost evenly over whether the most important thing was for Republicans to nominate a candidate who reflected their priorities and values (49%), or to nominate a candidate who could defeat President Joe Biden's bid for a second term (47%).
Even with Trump's strong standing, there were some signs that the race is fluid.
Those surveyed split 48%-44% when asked whether Trump's nomination was inevitable, or if some other candidate could win the GOP nomination. Nearly four in 10, 39%, said they might change their minds before the primary.
The USA TODAY/Boston Globe/Suffolk University survey of likely voters in the first-in-the-nation Republican primary finds Trump at 49% and Haley at 19%. While that gap of 30 percentage points is daunting, she has surged ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has lost his standing he once held as the dominant alternative to Trump.
DeSantis has dropped to 10% in the poll.
"I'm not 100% with Nikki; just with what I've followed so far, she's the one that's closest to what I would like to see in the president," said David Paquette, 72, a retired engineer from Atkinson, N.H., who was among those surveyed. A political independent, he likes DeSantis' record in Florida and is considering him, too. "He has a lot of great programs that he's actually implemented."
The poll of 500 likely Republican primary voters, taken by landline and cell phone Thursday through Monday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 points. Independents, who are permitted to vote in New Hampshire primaries, made up 40% of the sample; 60% were Republicans.
These voters split almost evenly over whether the most important thing was for Republicans to nominate a candidate who reflected their priorities and values (49%), or to nominate a candidate who could defeat President Joe Biden's bid for a second term (47%).
Even with Trump's strong standing, there were some signs that the race is fluid.
Those surveyed split 48%-44% when asked whether Trump's nomination was inevitable, or if some other candidate could win the GOP nomination. Nearly four in 10, 39%, said they might change their minds before the primary.
Exclusive: Nikki Haley surges past DeSantis in New Hampshire as Trump maintains lead
Nearly 4 in 10 likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire say they still might change their minds, a USA TODAY/Boston Globe/Suffolk Poll finds.
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