Fox News Power Rankings: 2024 election preview
Correspondent Mark Meredith reports on key power rankings for the 2024 election as candidates prepare to campaign in New Hampshire.
Former President Donald Trump is extending his lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in New Hampshire, with newcomers in the 2024 Republican primary for president also earning support from voters in the state, according to a new poll.
The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll, released Tuesday, gathered responses from 1,065 registered Granite State voters from June 21 - 23 and found that Trump sits at 47% support from voters in the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
Following Trump, DeSantis received 19% support, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie received six percent support, former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley garnered five percent support, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina received four percent support.
From left to right: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former President Donald Trump, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (John Lamparski, Drew Angerer, Brandon Bell via Getty Images)
Other contenders for the Republican presidential nomination — including former Vice President Mike Pence, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and entrepreneur and political commentator Vivek Ramaswamy,— received two percent support from survey respondents.
Compared to a similar poll from Saint Anselm College earlier this year, support for DeSantis in New Hampshire has dropped 10 points and support for Trump has increased seven points. The poll from March found Trump to have 42% support, followed by DeSantis at 29%, Haley at 4%, and Ramaswamy at 3%.
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If a general election rematch between Trump and President Biden was held today, New Hampshire voters questioned in the poll said they would support Biden over Trump 49% to 40%. DeSantis is in the same boat, with voters in the state still saying they would support Biden over the Florida governor 49% to 40% among general election voters.
Besides being a crucial early voting state in the presidential primaries, New Hampshire is also a key general election battleground state.
If an election rematch between Trump and President Biden was held today, New Hampshire voters who took part in the poll said they would vote for Biden over Trump 49% to 40%. (Erin Schaff/Getty Images)
But Granite State voters said they believe a Biden-Trump matchup in 2024 signals that the system is broken. Fourteen percent of Republicans surveyed said they are somewhat more inclined than Democrats (6%) to believe such a match-up represents the best that each political party has to offer, but 83% disagreed overall.
As for age, 70% of respondents to the survey — including 50% of Democrats — expressed concern about the 80-year-old incumbent, while 34% said they are concerned about the age of the 77-year-old former president.
Despite his polling numbers against Republicans, Biden remains in the clear among Democrats despite his primary challengers. Environmental activist and high profile vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received 9% support in the latest survey, while Marianne Williamson, who sought the party's nomination for president in 2020, picked up 8% support.
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The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll — conducted via online surveys — has a margin of error of +/- 3.0% with a confidence interval of 95%.
The survey was released as Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, and ex-CIA spy and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas - who launched his GOP presidential campaign last week - all campaigned in the state.
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the opening of his campaign headquaters in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., June 27, 2023. REUTERS/Reba Saldanha (Reuters)
Trump on Tuesday keynoted the New Hampshire Federation of Women's Lilac Luncheon, which is their largest annual fundraising gala. The former president, at the Concord event, touted the new poll from Saint Anselm College. He later traveled to Manchester to formally open his New Hampshire 2024 campaign headquarters.
Trump's campaign also unveiled its initial New Hampshire grassroots leadership team.
"We just announced 150 town captains, ward captains, and chairmen of all the counties and cities in the state," Trump campaign senior adviser in New Hampshire Steve Stepanek told Fox News. "We’ll probably be adding another 150 to that so that every single town, every single ward in the state will have a Trump captain who’s a Trump supporter and then we’re going to build a team around every single one of those people, and we’re going to train those people in the door knocking."
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Stepanek, a former state GOP chairman, predicted that "by September we’ll probably have well over 3,000 people who will be local people, Trump supporters who are passionate about the president who are going to be knocking their neighbors doors."
About two hours before Trump took to the podium at the luncheon, DeSantis held a town hall in southern New Hampshire town of Hollis, where he took questions from the audience for over an hour.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a town hall event in Hollis, N.H., Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Reuters )
Trump has repeatedly targeted DeSantis for months, as his lead over the Florida governor in the GOP nominations polls has increased.
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DeSantis, in an interview with Fox News' Mark Meredith ahead of his Tuesday town hall in New Hampshire, emphasized that "we are pushing back" and said he can effectively respond to Trump's attacks or "otherwise I would be running."
And DeSantis pointed to his numerous endorsements in New Hampshire and touted that "we're going to continue to build momentum as we go through here."
