Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley leads President Biden in a head-to-head matchup in a new poll, but she still falls far behind former President Donald Trump in the GOP primary.

A poll by the Messenger/Harris shows that Ms. Haley beats Mr. Biden by four points in their hypothetical matchup. But in a contest between Mr. Trump and Ms. Haley, the former president sees support from 76%, while Ms. Haley grabs 19%.

Mr. Trump also leads Mr. Biden in their matchup by seven percentage points.

Ms. Haley sees more support from independent voters in her matchup with Mr. Trump. She grabs 40% of independents, while 36% say they would choose Mr. Trump.

“The Haley phenomenon is driven by moderate Republicans, independents and disaffected voters. She beats Biden handily in a general election because of this but still has a lot of ground to make up with Republicans,” Dritan Nesho, CEO and chief pollster at HarrisX, said in a statement.

Ms. Haley also causes Mr. Biden to lose independent support in their matchup, with 38% supporting the former South Carolina governor, and 28% leaning towards Mr. Biden. Independents lean towards siding with Mr. Trump over fellow GOP hopeful Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by 10 points.

The former president leads Mr. DeSantis by one point in the poll.

This survey comes a day before the fourth GOP debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Only four candidates will be hitting the stage: Ms. Haley, Mr. DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Mr. Trump has qualified for the debates but has skipped all of them. He will instead be participating in a town hall hosted by Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night.

The poll was conducted online Nov. 27 through Dec. 1 among 2,018 registered voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.