Haley places second in home state South Carolina, doubling DeSantis: poll

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has surged to a clear second place position in her home state's Republican primary, trailing former President Donald Trump but doubling the support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a recent survey.

While Trump took a majority of 53% support among likely voters in the Palmetto State, Haley took 22% in the latest CNN/SSRS poll. DeSantis placed a distant third with 11% while South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott took 6%.

Former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tied for fourth with 2%, though Pence has suspended his campaign.

In some good news for DeSantis, a plurality of voters, 24%, signaled he would be their second choice, while Scott and Haley were the second choices of 19% each. Trump trailed with 13% in that category.

South Carolina is one of the earliest primary contests in the Republican nominating process and presents high stakes for both Haley and Scott, for whom a failure to win their home state would conceivably plunge their campaigns into terminal decline.

Scott, however, has recently indicated that for him, the race is "Iowa or bust." The Iowa Caucus is the first nominating contest in the primary race.

While Haley's relatively strong performance in her home state is far from surprising, the local results appear to differ significantly from national preferences. Trump maintains 59.2% support in the RealClearPolitics polling average, compared to 13.3% for DeSantis and 8.2% for Haley.

Conducted Oct. 18-25, the survey questioned 738 likely Republican primary voters and has a margin of sampling error of +/- 4.8%.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.