DeSantis supporters more likely to back Trump as second choice in New Hampshire: Poll

Supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are more likely to support former President Trump as their second-choice candidate in New Hampshire than former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, according to a new poll. 

The poll from CNN/University of New Hampshire (UNH) was released just hours before DeSantis announced he would be dropping out of the 2024 presidential primary and endorsing Trump on Sunday. The poll found that 62 percent of likely GOP New Hampshire voters who selected DeSantis as their first-choice candidate chose Trump as their second-choice candidate, while 30 percent chose Haley as their alternate candidate.

The poll comes just days before New Hampshire voters cast their ballots in the GOP primary election on Tuesday, where Haley is hoping to pull off an upset in the Granite State. Haley has gained on Trump in the state in recent weeks and is now trailing the former president by 11 percentage points, according to the CNN poll.

The CNN poll showed Trump with 50 percent support and Haley with 39 percent as DeSantis polled significantly behind.

The results of this poll suggest DeSantis’s supporters in New Hampshire may help boost Trump in the state. However, the poll also found that just 6 percent of voters selected the Florida governor as their first-choice candidate.

DeSantis endorsed Trump for the nomination in a video message Sunday.

“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear: a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents,” DeSantis said.

The CNN/UNH poll was conducted between Jan. 16 and Jan. 19 among 2,348 respondents, including 1,242 likely 2024 Republican primary voters. The poll has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points among likely New Hampshire GOP primary voters.