As supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the latest CNN New Hampshire poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire are reassigned to their second-choice candidate, former President Donald Trump's double-digit lead over former North Carolina governor South, Nikki Haley, among the likely Republican primary voters widens slightly.
Support for Trump increases from 50% to 54%, while Haley goes from 39% to 41%. Another 3% of likely GOP primary voters say they would vote for someone else.
The poll asked voters who they would support if their top choice was no longer in the race. DeSantis suspended his campaign on Sunday, a few hours after the poll results were first released.
The Florida governor was the first choice of 6% of likely New Hampshire GOP primary voters, and his supporters generally leaned toward Trump over Haley in their second choices. The survey was conducted from January 16 to 19.
Changing DeSantis supporters to their second choices doesn't materially change the dynamics of the race and, if anything, pushes the opposing Trump and Haley coalitions a little further apart.
Among registered Republicans, for example, support for Trump increases from 67% to 72%, while support for Haley among those registered as undeclared stands at 60% instead of 58%. And Trump's support among the state's likely conservative Republican primary voters rises from 71% to 77%, while Haley is at 72% among likely moderate Republican primary voters, similar to her initial level of support.
The CNN poll conducted by UNH was conducted online among 2,348 New Hampshire adults drawn from a probability-based panel. The 1,210 likely Republican primary voters were identified by asking survey questions about their intention to vote. The results for that group have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
