Nikki Haley Surpasses DeSantis In Iowa Support Despite His All In Strategy

On Thursday, former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) surpassed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in the Real Clear Politics polling average in the state of Iowa despite the DeSantis campaign's strategy to go all in on winning Iowa ahead of the upcoming caucus on January 15.

According to Real Clear Politics, Trump has 53.6 percent support from Iowans, while Haley has 17.2 percent, DeSantis has 15.2 percent, and Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH) has 6.8 percent. Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), who dropped out on Wednesday, has 3.5 percent, while former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), seemingly still in the race despite abysmal support, only has 0.8 percent support.

Haley and DeSantis continue to go head-to-head in Iowa, and their debate in Des Moines on Wednesday night was likely the high point of their campaigns to date. Despite both going back and forth against one another in the heated debate, they could not bring in the same audience that 45th President Trump brought for his Fox News town hall that occurred at the same time.

According to AdImpact Politics, the Trump town hall in Des Moines had an impressive 5.7 million viewers compared to the fifth GOP debate's 2.9 million viewers. Trump's town hall numbers make the Fox News town hall the most watched Republican primary television event since November 8, when the third GOP debate occurred, with 9.1 million viewers.

Trump's town hall also dwarfs the town halls of his rivals, with Gov. DeSantis' town hall this past week getting 3.7 million views while Haley's town hall only got 3 million. Trump also performed relatively favorably compared to the first few debates, with the DeSantis-Newsom debate having 5.2 million views, the second Republican debate having 9.9 million views, and the first GOP debate getting 14.2 million views.

Trump's town hall also dominated a DeSantis town hall held in December by CNN (734,000 viewers), with over seven times as many Americans tuning in to hear from the former president. Trump's dominance of the airwaves mirrors his dominance of the presidential race.

According to the Five Thirty Eight polling average, Trump enjoys 60.4 percent support nationally, DeSantis has 12.1 percent, Haley has 11.7 percent, and Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH) has 4.3 percent. Trump also dominates in the polls against President Biden, with the Real Clear Politics polling average having the leading Republican presidential candidate up 2.2 percentage points over the elderly Democrat.

As Haley and DeSantis continue to go after one another on the debate stage, in campaign ads, and on the trail, Donald Trump continues to cement his lead. 

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