Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has chipped away at former President Donald Trump’s lead in the New Hampshire primary race as she’s now within single digits of first place, according to a new poll.
Haley trails Trump by 7 percentage points among likely GOP voters in the Granite State, a CNN poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire and released Tuesday found.
The survey shows the former South Carolina governor receiving the support of 32% of voters compared to Trump’s 39% backing.
Support for Haley in New Hampshire has surged since November, rising by 12 percentage points since the last CNN/UNH poll.
The source of the former UN ambassador’s substantial upswing in polling lies in her strength with moderates, independents and those with college degrees – voting blocs where Haley has, in some cases, massive double-digit leads over the 77-year-old former president.
Haley leads Trump by 42 points among moderates, 26 points among undeclared voters and 12 points among college graduates, whereas the former president tops the 51-year-old former governor by 40 points among conservatives, 37 points among registered GOP voters and 17 points among those that didn’t go to college.
Besides Haley, no other candidate is within striking distance of Trump with two weeks to go until the New Hampshire primary.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stands at 12% support, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is at 8% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has plunged to 5%, according to the CNN/UNH survey.
A USA TODAY/Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll also shows Haley making significant gains on Trump, but still pegs her 20 points behind the former president in the first-in-the-nation primary.
Trump leads Haley in New Hampshire 46%-26%, according to the poll released Tuesday, with momentum on the side of the former South Carolina governor.
In October, the same survey found Trump with a 30-point lead over Haley, but the former president’s support has dipped 3 percentage points since then, while the former governor’s has increased by 7 percentage points.
If Christie were to drop out of the race before the Jan. 23 contest, many of his supporters would flock to Haley, the survey found, but not enough to put the former UN ambassador over the top.
Trump’s lead over Haley narrows to 47%-32% in that scenario, but Christie insists that he has no plans to exit the race.
New Hampshire GOP Chairman Chris Ager declared last month that Haley, who received the coveted endorsement of New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in December, can “absolutely” win the Granite State.
“Expect the unexpected,” Ager told “Cats & Cosby Show” host John Catsimatidis.
The state GOP chairman noted that with two upcoming New Hampshire debates – one on Jan. 18 hosted by ABC News and WMUR-TV and another on Jan. 21 that will air on CNN – and with same-day voting, if “somebody catches fire, this is the place they can do that.”