Former President Donald Trump has a wide lead in New Hampshire over his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, according to a new poll released Monday.
The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll based on 1,320 New Hampshire registered voters from Friday through Sunday showed Trump, who was arraigned Tuesday in Manhattan on myriad charges stemming from a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, is favored by 42% of the state's Republican voters.
Trump's lead in the Granite State, which will hold the nation's first GOP primary in 2024, is 13 percentage points higher than his closest challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (29%). Following DeSantis is New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (14%), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (4%), and multimillionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (3%).
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.0% with a confidence interval of 95%.
The poll showed President Joe Biden had a 45% approval rating and that just 15% of New Hampshire voters said they believe the country is on the right track, with 74% saying they believing the country is on the wrong track.
The poll showed Biden, who has yet to declare his intention to run for reelection, is favored by 34% of Democratic voters, followed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (18%), former first lady Michelle Obama (14%) and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (11%), who won the 2020 New Hampshire primary. Vice President Kamala Harris is at 4%.
"President Joe Biden's approval is still underwater, setting the backdrop for the upcoming New Hampshire presidential primaries, less than a year away," said Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in a news release. "Former president Donald Trump begins this cycle with an early plurality in the Republican primary, as does Biden in the Democratic primary.
"However, there are plenty of potential votes scattered among possible challengers to both, suggesting that a strong candidate in either primary could consolidate enough support for an upset."
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