Oliver Contreras/SIPA USA (Sipa via AP Images)
Nikki Haley (R-SC) is tied with Donald Trump in New Hampshire, according to a surprising new poll.
American Research Group, Inc. showed Trump and Haley tied at 40% of likely Republican primary voters in the Granite State.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was tied at 4% with Vivek Ramaswamy (R), who dropped out of the race Monday night. Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AK) polled at 1% and dropped out of contention on Tuesday.
The poll relied on 600 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of likely Republican primary voters living in New Hampshire (406 Republicans and 194 undeclared voters (independents)) from January 12-15, 2024. Margin of Error: ± 4 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split.
Trump handily won the Iowa caucuses by a huge margin — 51% — while DeSantis earned 21% and Haley took third with 19%.
However, these new numbers out of New Hampshire bolstered Haley’s argument that she won’t step on Thursday’s debate stage unless she gets a shot at Trump.
Haley posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday:
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
According to the New Hampshire Bulletin, ABC and WMUR “have officially given Donald Trump and Nikki Haley’s campaigns a deadline of 5:00 pm Eastern time today to commit” to the debate.
Trump, who spent Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom in the E. Jean Carroll rape/defamation case, has not responded to Haley’s debate challenge. That could leave Ron DeSantis on the stage all by his lonesome to answer the moderators’ questions.
DeSantis posted to X on Tuesday that Haley is afraid to debate him “because she doesn’t want to answer the tough questions.”
“I won’t snub New Hampshire voters like both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, and plan to honor my commitments. I look forward to debating two empty podiums in the Granite State this week.”
View the New Hampshire polling numbers here.
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