Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who was once viewed as former President Donald Trump’s biggest competitor, has fallen into fourth place in a poll of the key battleground state New Hampshire.
The new survey from Emerson College/7 News shows that Mr. DeSantis is polling at 7%, down 10 points from March. Former President Donald Trump leads with 49%, followed by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley with 18%.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has typically been performing low in the polls, surpassed Mr. DeSantis with 9%. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is in fifth place behind Mr. DeSantis with 5%.
However, when Republican primary voters were asked who their second-choice candidate would be, 22% chose Mr. DeSantis, while 18% chose Ms. Haley and 15% picked Mr. Ramaswamy.
New Hampshire voters in general prefer President Biden over Mr. Trump in a hypothetical matchup, with the president grabbing 47% of voters and Mr. Trump getting 42%. In a matchup between Mr. Biden and Mr. DeSantis, the president leads with 46% to Mr. DeSantis’ 38%.
A matchup between Mr. Biden and Ms. Haley shows that the former South Carolina governor actually beats Mr. Biden, 45% to 39%.
“For the last year, we’ve been looking at Ron DeSantis/Donald Trump race and now it looks like Nikki Haley is the alternative instead of Ron DeSantis at this point,” said Spencer Kimball, 7News/Emerson College pollster. “About a year ago, Ron DeSantis was at 17%. Now he’s down to 7%. And when we look at a candidate like Nikki Haley, since August, she’s gone from 4% up to 18%.”
When third-party candidates get thrown into the mix, the race tightens. In a matchup between Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Cornel West, the president grabs 40%, while Mr. Trump gets 37%, Mr. Kennedy gets 8% and Mr. West sees 1%.
“Kennedy voters are significantly less locked in than Biden and Trump voters,” Mr. Kimball said. “Majorities of Biden and Trump voters, 66% and 68%, say they will definitely vote for the candidate they chose, whereas 75% of Kennedy voters say there is a chance they could change their mind and vote for someone else.”
The poll was conducted from Nov. 10-13 through phone, email and online. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.