During the second Republican debate on Sept. 27, presidential candidate Nikki Haley said she felt “a little bit dumber” every time she heard fellow contender Vivek Ramaswamy talk. The insult, as it turns out, may have helped her overtake Ramaswamy and secure third place in recent polls.
According to a Fox News poll released last week, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador has doubled her support from 5 percent in September to 10 percent, now trailing only former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who are at 59 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
Some latest polls have even shown Haley ahead of DeSantis in key states, including New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first Republican primary. Haley is also beating DeSantis in South Carolina, traditionally the first Southern state to conduct the Republican primary.
Although DeSantis has retained the lead over Haley in Iowa, where the first Republican caucus of the 2024 election will be held, Haley has made strides in narrowing the gap over the past month.
“We can feel the momentum on the ground,” Haley told Fox News last Thursday. “We can feel it in Iowa. We can feel it in New Hampshire. We can feel it in South Carolina.”
Haley added that she has “donor interest wanting to help [her campaign].” Last Tuesday, she attended a Sen. Mitt Romney–led summit in Utah that brought together major Republican donors “looking for an alternative to Donald Trump.” Her talks with the donors were reportedly “very positive.”
DeSantis, on the other hand, has seen his poll numbers plummet since January. According to FiveThirtyEight’s national polling averages, the governor started this year with support from around 35 percent of Republican voters, but he is now hovering just above 10 percent.
But when asked about his flailing numbers, DeSantis insisted he is “doing it right” and that he “would not trade places with any other candidate” for what he has been able to do in Iowa. His campaign also touted, “No one is working harder in Iowa to take their message directly to voters than Ron DeSantis.”
Trump, for his part, has retained and, in some polls, even widened his commanding lead, despite the many criminal charges hurled at him this year. As the third Republican debate nears, it will be interesting to see whether the other candidates will coalesce behind one candidate to challenge the former president.
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