Nikki Haley nearly tied with Ron DeSantis in South Carolina: Poll

New polling data from South Carolina indicates that there is a growing battle for second place among GOP contenders in the 2024 primaries. According to a Winthrop University poll, former Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, and the current Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, are currently tied for second place with 18% and 20% of the votes respectively. However, there is a margin of error of plus or minus 4.45 percentage points from the GOP subset. Meanwhile, the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, is leading the poll with 41% of support.

Despite DeSantis being viewed as the primary alternative to Trump based on national polls, Haley is still in a statistical dead heat with him, which could create a firewall for her when voting commences. Scott Huffmon, the poll’s director, stated that “the real story here is that Haley and DeSantis are in a statistical dead heat in what could be a firewall for Haley when voting rolls around.”

Tim Scott, a Senator from South Carolina, who recently launched a presidential exploratory committee, scored 7% of support while former Vice President, Mike Pence, got 5%, and former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, scored 2% and 1% respectively.

According to the poll, Haley has a 73% approval and 14% unfavorable rating among Republicans, while with general voters, she has a 53% favorable rating and a 30% very or somewhat unfavorable rating. Trump has a 74% favorable and 17% unfavorable view among Republicans, whereas he has a 43% favorable and a 48% unfavorable rating among general election voters.

Despite DeSantis being widely perceived as the second-place challenger to Trump, Haley’s campaign has made a case that she is the better alternative. Haley has been visiting early primary states at a brisk pace after she launched her campaign in February. Currently, she is in Iowa, where she held a town hall meeting on Tuesday and is set to speak at the “Women for Nikki” event in Des Moines on Wednesday. Meanwhile, DeSantis has not yet entered the arena, but he has been traversing the nation, heralding Florida as a model to the country. He will deliver a speech in Ohio this week and is set to headline the 2023 Amos Tuck Dinner in New Hampshire on Friday. DeSantis, who is expected to declare his presidential intentions after the close of the Florida state legislature session in May.

The poll surveyed 1,657 adults in total with a Republican sample size of 485 individuals. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.41 percentage points, with the subsample having a margin of error of plus or minus 4.45 percentage points. In general election polling, Trump leads with DeSantis in second place and Haley in fourth place according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.