Donald Trump has maintained a formidable lead in the crucial 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 Granite State’s Republican primary finds Trump at 49% and Haley at 19%. That gap of 30 percentage points is daunting, but she has now surged ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has lost his standing he once held as the dominant alternative to Trump.
DeSantis was at 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, shows a contest that remains somewhat fluid, though Trump’s standing is undeniably strong. Nearly four in 10, 39%, said they might change their minds before the primary, which is now expected to be Jan. 23.
That said, Trump’s supporters were more loyal than those for any other contender. An overwhelming 84% said their minds were made up to back him; just 15% said they might switch to someone else.
“I trusted Trump last time he was out there; he did good for us and I don’t care what anybody else says,” said Joyce Briand, 62, a registered Republican from Newport who supports him. Then Briand, a former licensed nursing assistant, added, “Trump might do some bad things; everybody does. I don’t like some of the things he says. He should keep his mouth shut sometimes. But when he says he’s going to do something, he does it.”
None of the other candidates hit double digits in the poll. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie was at 6%,; tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott at 4%; former vice president Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum at 1%.
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The small New England state has an outsized influence on presidential nominations every four years because its primary goes first, following in short order the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses.
In the GOP contest this time,
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump holds lead in New Hampshire but Haley surges in exclusive poll
