Trump leads Nikki Haley by 26 points in the rare poll from her home state of South Carolina, while 60 percent of Republicans say it doesn’t matter if the former president is convicted in the 2020 election
Former President Donald Trump leads rival Nikki Haley by 26 points in a poll released Thursday of Republican voters in South Carolina.
Haley served as the state’s governor from 2011 to 2017 before becoming Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
If she is overthrown by the ex-president in the February 24 Republican primary in South Carolina, it could ruin her already struggling campaign.
The Monmouth University/Washington Post survey found that 58 percent of Republican primary voters in South Carolina said they would support Trump, while 32 percent said they would choose Haley.
More than 60 percent of respondents said the Republican Party should keep Trump on track even if he is convicted of a crime related to overturning the 2020 election.
Former President Donald Trump (left) leads rival Nikki Haley (right) by 26 points in a poll released Thursday of Republican voters in South Carolina. Haley previously served as governor of South Carolina
Former President Donald Trump still has a wide lead over rival Nikki Haley in her home state of South Carolina. She has gained 14 points since September, while he has increased his share of the vote by 12 points
Both candidates have benefited from a slimmed-down primary field, rather than just Haley, which is why Trump remains so far ahead.
In September, the last time Monmouth surveyed Republicans in South Carolina, Trump had the support of 46 percent of Republican Party primary voters, while Haley was at 18 percent.
At the time, another 32 percent of South Carolina Republicans supported another candidate.
In January, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, then-entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and then Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race, setting up a Trump-Haley showdown two days before the New Hampshire primary.
Trump defeated Haley there by 11.1 points.
Next week, Nevada voters will make their choice — but due to a tussle between the state legislature and the Trump-aligned Republican Party, only the ex-president will be eligible to pick up delegates due to his participation in the February 8 caucus.
That makes South Carolina – with its primaries at the end of February – the next real battleground state.
Palmetto State Republicans are unfazed by Trump’s legal troubles, with three in five saying they believe the ex-president should be caught red-handed even if he is convicted of crimes in the 2020 election interference.
A similar 62 percent said they would still vote for the ex-president if he is convicted, while only 17 percent said they would stray and vote for Democratic President Joe Biden.
Among single Trump supporters in South Carolina, 88 percent said he should remain on trial if convicted, while 90 percent said they would still vote for him.
Trump supporters believed he was a stronger candidate than Haley to run against Biden in the fall, despite Haley’s ability to attract independents and conservative Democrats.
Among Trump supporters in South Carolina, 42 percent said they believed he would “definitely” beat Biden in November, while another 29 percent said they believed Trump would “probably” beat Biden.
The poll found that South Carolinians who support Trump were more doubtful about Haley’s ability to beat Biden — with just 21 percent saying she would definitely beat the Democrat and another 42 percent saying she would probably beat him.
Only about a third, 32 percent, of Republicans who supported Haley believed Trump could defeat Biden in the November general election.
“Trump’s electability worries some primary voters. It’s just that this group is not nearly large enough to put Haley within striking distance of the frontrunner,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement Thursday.
There is also more enthusiasm among Trump’s supporters.
Seventy-three percent of South Carolina Republicans who supported Trump said they were extremely motivated to vote for the ex-commander in chief, compared to 45 percent who said the same about supporting Haley.
Haley’s saving grace — which failed to materialize in New Hampshire — is the fact that Democrats can technically cross party lines and vote for her in the Palmetto State, as long as they don’t vote in the Feb. 3 Democratic primary.
“Haley’s hopes appear to rest on attracting Democratic-leaning voters who would never support her in a general election but simply want to stop Trump. Our sampling frame for this poll did not include voters who participated only in the Democratic primary,” Murray explained. “If a significant number of those voters decide to skip this week’s primaries and turn out for the Republican primary instead, they could narrow the gap.”
“However, it would remain a tough challenge for her to actually close it,” he added.
South Carolinians who voted exclusively in Republican primaries preferred Trump to Haley by 67 percent to 24 percent, while South Carolinians who voted in both Republican and Democratic primaries preferred Haley to Trump by 55 percent to 27 percent.