Before the primary on February 24 in her home state of South Carolina, a new poll found that former president Donald Trump has a 26-point advantage over former governor Nikki Haley.
Voters leaning Republican have been showing more support for Trump (58% vs. 32%) and Haley (18%) since September, according to a poll issued Thursday by Monmouth University and the Washington Post.
According to reporting on the polls, Haley, ambassador to the UN under Trump’s administration, has a long way to go before she can have a good showing in the GOP primary in her home state. Until March 5, when Super Tuesday rolls around, Haley promises to remain in the race.
According to the poll, Trump gets 62% male support, 54% female support, 62% support among voters aged 18–49, 58% support among those aged 50–64, and 57% support among those aged 65 and beyond. He received 69% of the vote among white evangelicals, and among those without a bachelor’s degree, he received 68%.
With 46% of non-white evangelicals voting for Trump and 42% for Haley, the two candidates are neck and neck. In contrast, Haley has 46% support among college grads, while Trump has 44%.
South Carolina GOP primary voters don’t seem to care about Trump’s legal troubles; in fact, over 60% of them think the party should keep him on the ballot if he wins the nomination, regardless of whether he gets a conviction related to the 2020 race.
Among eligible voters, 42% think Trump would easily defeat President Joe Biden in a November battle, while 29% believe he would undoubtedly win. Some primary voters are worried about Trump’s electability; only 21% think Haley would defeat Biden, and 42% think she would probably win.
According to Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, Haley does not have a bloc large enough to put her within striking distance of the front-runner.
From January 26th to the 30th, the survey asked 815 South Carolina residents about their intentions to vote in the Republican primary. Its margin of error is 3.9 percentage points.
