A survey released Thursday by the Washington Post-Monmouth University shows that just weeks before South Carolina’s primary on February 24, Donald Trump has a 26-point advantage over Nikki Haley.
In Haley’s home state, 58% of prospective Republican primary voters backed the previous president, while 32% backed the current leader.
Consistently polling 30 points behind Trump, Haley has found it difficult to get further support in South Carolina. Trump’s recent successes in New Hampshire and Iowa have undermined the presidential candidacy of the former governor of South Carolina.
Although Haley has stated her intention to remain a Republican presidential candidate until Super Tuesday, she has not said whether or not she plans to be a candidate until the party’s nomination convention in July comes around.
According to the survey, Trump has the backing of most males (62%) and women (54%). Among white evangelicals, Trump gets 69% support, and among those without a bachelor’s degree, 68%.
Trump also has the backing of those who believe that former president Joe Biden was fraudulently elected, an accusation that Trump has made time and time again. Among South Carolina GOP primary voters, 57% believe Biden’s election was tainted by fraud, and 85% of those people are now rooting for Trump to be the party’s nominee. Seventy percent of Biden’s supporters believe he was elected “fair and square.”
According to seven out of ten people, Trump would also likely defeat President Joe Biden in November.
The survey also indicated that Republican primary voters in South Carolina seem unconcerned with Trump’s legal issues. Sixty percent of Republicans think Trump should remain on the ticket even if he is found guilty of a felony connected to the 2020 election after winning the nomination.
Eight hundred fifteen South Carolina residents eligible to vote in the Republican primary were the subjects of the Jan. 26–30 Post-Monmouth survey. From the whole pool of people who might vote in the Republican primary, we can estimate a margin of sampling error of 3.9 percentage points.
