
Former president and current GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is towering over fellow Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley in her home state of South Carolina, according to a recent poll.
The Emerson College poll, which was released on January 5, showed Trump beating Haley 54% to 25% among South Carolina voters. As for the rest of the Republican primary field, none of the candidates have even managed to break out of single digits in the state — as the survey showed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) with 7%, followed by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) with 5% and conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy with 3%.
📊 2024 South Carolina GOP Primary
• Trump — 54% (+29)
• Haley — 25%
• DeSantis — 7%
• Christie — 5%
• Ramaswamy — 3%• Emerson (A-) | 01/02-03 | n=584https://t.co/88P7JehB7f pic.twitter.com/v7vfptPXuu
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) January 5, 2024
The poll surprisingly showed Haley with an advantage among independent voters, garnering 37% support compared to Trump’s 34%. However, the establishment candidate’s support among Republicans is significantly lower, with 21% of Republican voters supporting Haley compared to 62% supporting Trump.
The former president is also beating Haley in every age group in the survey, though she does outperform him in one other category — individuals who hold postgraduate degrees, who favor Haley by one point.
Despite losing to Trump by wide margins in nearly every poll, even in her own home state, Haley has repeatedly insisted that she will win the GOP nomination and the presidency — even confidently declaring in a recent interview with left-leaning NBC News that she would beat Trump and would consider DeSantis as a running mate.
In case you missed this, warmonger Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley (@NikkiHaley) says she will defeat Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) and might consider Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) as her running mate. Nothing for @VivekGRamaswamy. WATCH pic.twitter.com/tjBrwzmJti
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) January 6, 2024
Emerson College polling executive director Spencer Kimball explained in a statement about the data that “perception of the most important issue facing the state varies by party,” according to the poll.
The survey showed that 49% of South Carolina Republicans view the economy as the most important issue that the United States is currently facing, while 16% believe that immigration is the most important issue.
However, the issues are different for Democrats — as only 28% view the economy as the most important issue, while 16% believe healthcare is the most important issue, and 12% claim that so-called “threats to democracy” are the most important issue.
The poll was conducted among 1,046 voters in South Carolina from January 2-3 and has a margin of error of 3%. The pollsters surveyed 584 GOP voters in the state for questions about the Republican primary with a margin of error of 4% and surveyed 320 Democrat voters for questions about the Democrat primary with a margin of error of 5.4%.