A new St. Anselm College poll of the 2024 New Hampshire GOP primary (conducted mostly before news of the Trump indictment):
The results of the few independent New Hampshire polls conducted this year have varied widely by pollster. In January, the University of New Hampshire found DeSantis leading Trump by 12 points, but an Emerson College poll from early March showed Trump leading DeSantis by 41 points.
The new poll from St Anselm is the first to show New Hampshire GOP governor Chris Sununu, who has not announced a run for the presidency, cracking double digits. A Sununu candidacy would certainly make it more difficult for DeSantis to consolidate a non-Trump coalition in New Hampshire, and DeSantis faces a similar challenge in South Carolina with former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley (and potentially Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina) in the race. We’re 10 months away from voting, but it’s possible that the Iowa caucuses, which Trump lost to Ted Cruz in 2016, could be DeSantis’s best opportunity to score the early victory that’s necessary to keep Trump from steamrolling to the nomination.