Ex-United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has sliced former President Donald Trump’s lead in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary down to single digits, according to a new poll.


What You Need To Know

  • Ex-United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has sliced former President Donald Trump’s lead in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary down to single digits, according to a new poll

  • In the poll by CNN and the University of New Hampshire, Trump leads with support from 39% of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire; Haley is in a comfortable second place at 32%

  • Haley’s support in the Granite State has climbed by 12 percentage points since the same poll was conducted in November, while Trump has fallen by three points

  • Unaffiliated voters have fueled Haley’s rise in the CNN/UNH survey — she’s polling 18 points higher with that group than she was two months ago

In the poll by CNN and the University of New Hampshire, Trump leads with support from 39% of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire. A former South Carolina governor, Haley is in a comfortable second place at 32%. 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is at 12% in the poll, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 8%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 5% and ex-Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson at less than 1%.

Haley’s support in the Granite State has climbed by 12 percentage points since the same poll was conducted in November, while Trump has fallen by three points. Haley trailed Trump by 22 points then.

New Hampshire’s GOP primary, in which independents can vote, will be held Jan. 23. 

Unaffiliated voters have fueled Haley’s rise in the CNN/UNH survey — she’s polling 18 points higher with that group than she was two months ago.

Forty-five percent of likely GOP primary voters who were polled were independents. About a third of likely Republican primary voters (32%) described themselves as moderates, while nearly half (48%) said they were conservatives.

Trump leads Haley by 40 percentage points among conservatives. Haley, meanwhile, has a 42-point advantage over her former boss with moderates. 

Trump still holds a commanding lead nationally in the polls. According to FiveThirtyEight’s average, he is polling at 61.8%, followed by DeSantis at 12.1% and Haley at 11.2%. 

Two weeks before the primary, Trump has firmer support than Haley in New Hampshire, according to the CNN/UNH poll. Eighty percent of voters who back him say they will definitely vote for him, while just 54% of Haley’s supporters say the same about her. 

Trump and Haley are the only two candidates in the field who have positive favorability scores among likely GOP primary voters. Forty-seven percent said they view Trump favorably, while 38% have an unfavorable opinion of him. Thirty-nine percent have a favorable view of Haley, and 35% have an unfavorable one.

The poll showed continued ominous signs for DeSantis in New Hampshire. Once considered Trump’s chief rival for the party’s nomination, DeSantis has seen his support in the survey plummet from 23% in July to 5% today. Meanwhile, his favorability rating in the state has sunk from 44% in September to 29%, according to the survey. 

The poll of 1,864 people, including 914 likely Republican primary voters, was conducted online from last Thursday through Tuesday. The GOP results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.