Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley narrowed the gap in ratings with Donald Trump ahead of the New Hampshire Republican primary. Trump currently has 39% of likely Republican voters in the state, compared to Haleyʼs 32%.
CNN writes about this with reference to the latest survey conducted by the University of New Hampshire.
Haleyʼs approval rating is up 12 percentage points since the last CNN/UNH poll in November 2023. Pollsters point out that Haley began to gain momentum last summer, while the numbers of her opponents, including Trump, have remained stable or declined since the fall.
Haleyʼs support has risen sharply among registered undeclared (independent) voters, up 18% among that group since November. Her rating also increased by 20% among voters who are ideologically moderate.
The rest of the Republican candidates in New Hampshire trail Trump and Haley: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has 12% of likely voters, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy has 8%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has 5%, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has less than 1%.
New Hampshire is the first state to hold a primary on January 23, 2024, and thus largely sets the trend for candidate support in the US as a whole. The winners of the primary in this state usually receive more attention from all Americans, as well as more financial infusions from donors for their subsequent election campaign.
- In November 2023, the Republican Party had more support from voters. Americans believe that Republicans can currently do better on the economy, inflation and crime, while Democrats have the upper hand on gun violence, education and health care. At that time, Donald Trump was ahead of the current chairman of the White House Joe Biden in five of six key states. The so-called swing states in question are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.