- Trump is at 54 percent in the latest USA Today/Suffolk poll
- Haley is 20 and DeSantis is 13
Nikki Haley’s steady rise over her second-tier competitors in the national polls continues in Iowa, where she has passed Ron DeSantis to take second place in the new poll just four days before the Iowa Caucuses.
That’s the good news for the former South Carolina governor in a new poll from the University of Suffolk that comes after Haley and DeSantis traded blows on stage at Drake University in a debate Wednesday night.
The bad news for Haley is that she is still 34 percentage points behind front-runner Donald Trump.
Still, the prospect of a second-place finish in Iowa gives Haley the potential opportunity to leverage some momentum in a state with an older and more conservative electorate, where evangelical voters hold sway.
The USA Today/Suffolk Poll has Haley at 20 points, Trump at 54 and DeSantis at 13 percent. Other recent polls have had Haley and DeSantis tied, with both still more than 30 points behind Trump.
Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, is ahead of Ron DeSantis in a new Iowa poll ahead of Monday’s caucuses
It is DeSantis and a pro-DeSantis super PAC that built the more substantial operation in Iowa, and the caucuses will be a test of his door-knocking and voting operation, even after Haley said in the angry debate that his campaign had “exploded” and accused him of repeatedly telling “lies.”
DeSantis responded that Haley has denied positions she defended in the videotaped comments.
DeSantis and Haley clashed on the debate stage Wednesday night. Both were on the road again on Thursday
Former US President Donald Trump, who is far ahead in the Iowa polls, was back in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday
The poll still includes New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who dramatically halted his campaign on Thursday evening, shortly after a stirring microphone moment in which he could be heard saying Haley was going to be “smoked.”
“We went to over 150 town halls, and we talked to everyone, we answered every question, we shook hands with everyone,” Haley told Fox & Friends Thursday morning. ‘We have a good feeling about this. I mean, look, politics isn’t personal to me. The boys might take it personally. It’s not for me.’
Haley is also ahead of DeSantis in the Real Clear Politics averagebut still 35 points behind Trump.