Trump holds comfortable lead in CNN New Hampshire poll, but Haley is gaining

Former President Trump holds a large lead in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary, while former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is gaining ground in the key early voting state, according to a new poll.

A CNN poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire and released Thursday found 42 percent of likely GOP primary voters in the Granite State said they would vote for Trump, while 20 percent said they’d back Haley.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie garnered 14 percent support, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 9 percent and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 8 percent. No other candidate had more than 2 percent support.

Haley’s support in the poll is up 8 points from the last CNN poll conducted in mid-September.

Among registered Republican voters in the latest survey, Trump remains on top with 55 percent support, followed by Haley at 17 percent and DeSantis at 11 percent.

Meanwhile, undeclared voters — those who are not registered with either party but are likely to vote in the Republican primary — are more divided, the poll shows, with 25 percent backing Haley, 24 percent supporting Trump and another 24 backing Christie.

These undeclared voters made up around 43 percent of likely GOP primary voters in the poll.

The CNN poll’s findings follow a series of others that show Haley appearing to gain ground on her GOP rivals, notably DeSantis, who was once thought to be the top challenger to Trump in the Republican primary.

An Emerson College Polling survey released Wednesday showed Haley emerging as the runner-up to Trump, with her support increasing from 4 percent in August to 18 percent in November.

Haley dismissed Trump’s maintained lead in the primary earlier this week, telling “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream that people are “getting tired of the drama and the chaos and the negativity” she said follows the former president.

More than half of those surveyed in the latest CNN poll — 57 percent — said they think Trump has the “best chance” of winning a general election, compared to 15 percent who said the same of Haley. The rest of the candidates received 5 percent or less on that question.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration, has repeatedly argued she is best suited to take on President Biden in a general election.

Recent polling suggests Trump is leading Biden in hypothetical match-ups, following older polls that show the two rivals in more of a dead heat. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll released earlier this week showed Trump leading Biden 44 percent to 42 percent.

Meanwhile, a New York Times/Siena College poll released earlier this month showed Haley holding a wider lead over Biden than Trump does in head-to-head match-ups in swing states.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan (R) announced Wednesday the state’s presidential primaries will be Jan. 23, about a week after Iowa kicks off the nominating cycle with its Republican caucuses.

The CNN poll was conducted among 1,946 New Hampshire adults Nov. 10-14 by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. It has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.