Former President Donald Trump is leading Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-LF) in a recent poll of New Hampshire primary voters.
The new poll from the St. Anselm College Survey Center showed the wide gap between Trump and other major competitors, with support for the former president at 47%, while DeSantis, at 19%, remains his closest rival.
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Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, is at 6%, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is at 5%. Several other GOP contenders, including Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, are tied at 2%. Ten percent of respondents said they are still undecided.
Despite the Justice Department's federal indictment of Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, and other uphill legal battles, the latest poll indicates the former president remains the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.
However, when asked which candidate voters believed to be "the biggest threat to American democracy," 46% answered Trump, with only 11% answering DeSantis.
President Joe Biden also holds an edge over Trump in a hypothetical 2024 election rematch, with 49% of respondents saying they would vote for Biden and 40% for Trump. The poll was taken from 1,065 New Hampshire registered voters and was conducted June 21-23.
New Hampshire continues to be an important battleground state in the early election cycle for GOP presidential hopefuls, with the Republican National Committee requiring candidates to poll at least 1% in two national polls and 1% in early state polls from Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina or gain 1% support in three national polls.
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The Democratic National Committee approved a presidential primary calendar in February that placed South Carolina as the first nominating state, breaking away from New Hampshire’s laws declaring the state holds the first primary. Lawmakers in New Hampshire, including Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, and Chris Ager, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, have insisted on upholding the hundred-year tradition of keeping the state up front.
Buckley said in a statement that he and others “fear that this decision by the DNC will put our four electoral votes in jeopardy."