Emerson Poll: Christie Tops DeSantis in New Hampshire

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie moved ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in New Hampshire in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new Emerson College poll.

The survey, released Tuesday, found Christie outpaced DeSantis in New Hampshire with 9% support. Support for DeSantis fell from 17% in March to 8% in the Emerson poll.

Christie's one-point lead over DeSantis falls within the survey's margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

"DeSantis has been the alternative to Trump in Emerson polling this presidential cycle," Emerson College Polling Executive Director Spencer Kimball said. "This is the first time we have seen DeSantis drop out of second place in our polling, and fall back into the pack of candidates."

While Christie's campaign has focused on New Hampshire, DeSantis has concentrated his efforts on Iowa, but DeSantis has visited New Hampshire several times.

The poll also showed that former President Donald Trump is still dominating the Republican primary field in New Hampshire with 49% support.

Trailing DeSantis in fourth place, at 6%, is Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley tied at 4%. Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and businessman Perry Johnson garnered 3% and 2%, respectively.

Former Vice President Mike Pence and former Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, received 1% support each. Among those surveyed, 13% said they were undecided.

Christie said earlier this week that Trump "needs to be smart and careful" about what he does after the judge in his 2020-election related case put some restrictions on what he is allowed to say.

"I think it is impossible to not have politics inform some of this case," Christie told ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday. "It's not a normal criminal case, and so politics is going to inform some of it, but I also think Donald Trump needs to be smart and careful about this if that's at all possible, [as] he is a criminal defendant."

According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Trump is leading the GOP field at 54.5% support, while DeSantis comes in second with 14.8%. Ramaswamy is third at 6.3%.

The Emerson College survey was conducted Aug. 9-11 and polled 837 registered New Hampshire voters.

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