Former president Donald Trump is currently leading former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley in her own state by a substantial 28 points, according to a new poll.
Trump stands far ahead of the GOP presidential field at 46 percent among potential Republican primary voters in South Carolina while Haley trails behind at 18 percent, which is triple her support in national polls since last month, the Washington Post-Monmouth University poll found this week.
Additionally, when combining the voters’ first and second choices, Trump has 52 percent support compared with Haley’s 34 percent.
The latest results come as Trump continues to perform well among Republican voters across the nation despite his four recent indictments, an impressive feat that Haley can’t match.
That said, Haley is gaining momentum among Americans mainly due to her performance on the GOP debate stage last month.
Last week, she emerged as the only Republican presidential candidate to beat President Joe Biden in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup by a considerable margin outside the survey’s margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. In that national poll, Haley led Biden 49 percent to 43 percent, roughly 2.5 points higher than the set margin. The poll showed Trump with a narrow lead over Biden, 47 percent to 46 percent, and Florida governor Ron DeSantis and the president tied at 47 percent each.
Haley also performed well in New Hampshire, tying with DeSantis at 10 percent, according to a poll released September 1. Trump led both by 37 points.
As for this week’s new survey, 10 percent back South Carolina senator Tim Scott, and DeSantis has 9 percent support among respondents. The other candidates, including former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former vice president Mike Pence, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, all received 5 percent or less in the poll.
The Washington Post and Monmouth University surveyed 705 South Carolina Republican voters September 6–11 for the poll, which had a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.