News/Commentary

New poll wants you to believe Nikki Haley betters Biden by a STUNNING 17 points

December 10, 2023 | | Print Article

Fresh fodder for the primary campaigns found only one GOP hopeful clearing the threshold for victory in a head-to-head matchup beating out President Joe Biden by a whopping 17 points.

With results sure to rankle former President Donald Trump, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley managed not only to beat out Biden in a hypothetical general election held now, she did so by surpassing 50% of the vote.

The results of a Wall Street Journal poll conducted in conjunction with GBAO Strategies and Fabrizio Lee, Democratic and Republican pollsters respectively, put the once South Carolina governor over the resident of the White House 51-34% for respondents questioned between Nov. 29 and Dec. 4.

A breakdown of those numbers showed that if the election were held presently, 36% would definitely vote for Haley while 15% probably would. By comparison, 24% would definitely vote Biden and 10% were probable as 15% remained undecided between them.

For Trump against Biden, it was 47-43% and for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis it was a tie at 45-45%.

A closer look at those numbers saw that only 10% of respondents remained undecided if Trump were the GOP nominee and that he outshone Haley with definite voters of 40% while only garnering 7% probables. Similarly, Biden tacked on an additional 13% in definite voters bringing that number up to 37% with only 6% of respondents marked as probable.

The direct matchup between Biden and DeSantis saw the incumbent scoring 2% more definite voters in their 45-45% split.

For context, the poll sampled 419 registered Republican voters out of the 1,500 total registered respondents as a primary specific question found 59% of GOP voters behind Trump, 15% behind Haley and 14% behind DeSantis

Only 91% expressed that they would definitely vote in their state’s primary or caucus.

Additionally, nearly half of all respondents indicated that they “Could change mind and vote for someone else,” as their respective state primaries and the general election drew nearer.

Other details of the poll found roughly a third of Trump voters in a matchup against Biden were solely a vote against the incumbent compared with 51% of Biden voters who would say the same against Trump.

Similar responses were not presented regarding Haley and DeSantis.

Furthermore, respondents were also asked to weigh a potential felony conviction of Trump, in which case the former president shed 2% of definite voters and Biden gained 5% allowing him to edge out victory 46% to 45%.

Meanwhile, Haley’s communications director Nachama Soloveichik touted another detail of the polls in favor of the ambassador over a generic candidate. “Nikki Haley beats the generic ballot by 12 points!… Both Trump and DeSantis underperform the generic ballot.”

With just over five weeks remaining before the first consequential metric for the 2024 Republican presidential primary is decided by Iowa caucus-goers, it remains to be seen what actual voters will decide. Still, the most telling trend of all was Biden’s growing disapproval rating which had sunk down to 54% by Aug. ’22, but had steadily climbed to 61% at the time this poll was conducted.

Kevin Haggerty
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