Trump holds onto substantial 42% lead in New Hampshire – with Nikki Haley 22 points behind in second and Ron DeSantis dropping to FOURTH

A new poll in New Hampshire shows that while Donald Trump is holding on to his commanding lead, Nikki Haley is closing the gap significantly as the Jan. 23 early primaries quickly approach.

Trump is still the farthest frontrunner in the Republican primaries with 42 percent support, according to the new CNN poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire. His standing is up 3 percent from September, when he earned 39 percent among primary voters in the Granite State.

Meanwhile, Haley is 22 percent behind Trump, with a shocking 20 percent support with just two months until the New Hampshire primary.

The former UN ambassador saw a huge jump from September, when she polled just 12 percent in the same CNN poll.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has fallen to fourth place in the first state of the national primaries, which will not follow the Iowa caucuses until January

Her strong debate performances combined with other candidates suspending their campaigns have helped Haley close the gap with Trump.

Iowa will hold its first primaries with their caucuses on January 15 – but New Hampshire is not far behind and will hold its first traditional primaries on January 23.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had an early lead in the field behind Trump, but is now in fourth place in New Hampshire with 9 percent support, after emerging with 23 percent support in the early primaries in July and September had fallen to 10 percent.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, despite trailing nationally, is ahead of DeSantis in New Hampshire in the polls, up from 11 percent in September to 14 percent in November.

Christie is banking a lot on his performance in New Hampshire. He boasted on Fox News on Wednesday that he hasn’t spent “an hour in Iowa” during this primary campaign.

He has also dismissed national polls, claiming they don’t matter because the US doesn’t have national primaries. That’s why he’s focusing on his state-by-state performance.

Christie sarcastically told Fox News host Sandra Smith that he should “just drop out” of the race because RealClearPolitics national polls put him at 2.4 percent.

Repeatedly, Christie pointed to surveys in New Hampshire, the early primary state where 2024 hopefuls are throwing their weight behind the Jan. 23 election.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he isn’t worried about the national polls because primaries are state-by-state, while dismissing his dismal performance in national surveys.

“I don’t care where I stand in the national polls,” Christie shot back at Smith when she asked how he thinks he’s actually doing nationally compared to the polls.

“It doesn’t matter, we don’t have a national primary, Sandra,” he continued, clearly frustrated by the story. “If we had a national primary, I would be in a desperate, terrible situation – but that’s not the case. We have state-by-state primaries.”

From September’s poll to this month’s poll, former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott suspended their primary campaigns. This cleared the way for the 8 percent who voted for them two months ago to redistribute among voters. remaining candidates.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has lost some ground in New Hampshire, where he was at 13 percent in September.

The millionaire now stands at 8 percent with just two months to make up for lost support.