Make America Florida? No thanks, says New Hampshire's Republican primary voters in a new survey conducted by Emerson College Polling, in which Chris Christie leapfrogged over Ron DeSantis into second place, behind Donald Trump.
This is a far cry from the days of yesteryear — as in last March — when DeSantis and Trump were tied in New Hampshire at 39%-39%, according to Axios, and DeSantis was considered to be a candidate showing "early state strength."
"This is the first time we have seen DeSantis drop out of second place in our polling, and fall back into the pack of candidates," said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling.
In the poll, conducted between August 9–11 (before Donald Trump's fourth indictment), 49% of Republican voters said they planned to vote for Trump, while 9% supported Christie, and only 8% for DeSantis. So much for standing in Trump's shadow, shaking in his fancy boots — being Trump's less charismatic MAGA mini-me has proved to be a disastrous strategy that, out of the dozens or so GOP candidates, only the combative Christie seems to grasp.
As the field of candidates has come more into focus since March, Florida Governor DeSantis no longer holds second place with double digits, instead has fallen to 8%.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie surpassed DeSantis for second-place in the Republican field: 9% of voters support his 2024 bid, while 8% support DeSantis.
The Emerson College Polling New Hampshire survey was conducted August 9-11, 2023. The sample of registered voters, n=837, has a credibility interval, similar to a poll's margin of error (MOE), of +/- 3.4 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, education, age, party registration, and region based on 2024 registration modeling. Modeling is based on U.S. Census parameters and New Hampshire voter registration and election data.
Meanwhile, in a hypothetical 2024 race between Trump and Biden, "Biden leads Trump 48% to 41%, while 7% would vote for someone else, and 4% are undecided."
