Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is surging in the battle for second place behind former President Donald Trump, as she has risen to second place, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has slipped to fourth in the latest New Hampshire primary poll by Emerson College.
Trump maintains a 31-point lead over the field at 49%, but his runner-up has cracked double digits — and with a huge bump — as Haley is now running second at 18% support. She was at just 4% in August before the 2024 GOP primary debate cycle.
Haley had been trailing Trump, DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — who she called a "scum" in last week's debate.
The full New Hampshire GOP primary results in the Emerson College Polling sponsors by WHDH-TV:
- Trump 49% (steady)
- Haley 18% (up 14 points from August)
- Christie 9% (steady)
- DeSantis 7% (down 1 point from August)
- Ramaswamy 5%
- Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., 2%
- North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum 2%
Scott is no longer officially in the race. There were 9% of registered GOP primary voters who are still undecided.
"Nikki Haley's support is driven by older voters, and those with postgraduate degrees," Emerson College Polling Executive Director Spencer Kimball wrote in his analysis. "While Trump leads across all age groups, Haley gets 21% of the vote from voters over 40 while getting about 8% from voters under 40.
"Trump leads among non-college-educated with 57% to 12% for Haley, but among college-educated GOP voters Trump leads 35% to 27%, and among those with postgraduate degrees Trump leads 29% to 26% over Haley."
Notably, Haley leads President Joe Biden by 6 points (45%-39%), outperforming Trump (minus-5 points) or DeSantis (minus-8 points) against the Democrat incumbent in hypothetical general election poll tests.
"Independent New Hampshire voters prefer Biden against Trump, 47% to 36%, DeSantis, 46% to 31%, however, they are more split with Haley on the ballot, breaking for Haley over Biden, 40% to 38%," according to Kimball's analysis.
Emerson's poll very closely aligns with other polls in the RealClearPolitics GOP primary polling average in the state.
The Emerson College Polling/WHDH New Hampshire survey was conducted Nov. 10-13 among 917 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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