Nikki Haley on path to edge out DeSantis after tie in Iowa 2024 poll

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is making headway in the 2024 presidential race, tying with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as Iowa voters’ favorite Republican candidate behind former President Donald Trump.

A recent poll from NBC News, the Des Moines Register, and Mediacom released on Monday found DeSantis and Haley are tied with 16% of Iowa voters as their first choice for president. Notable in the poll is that Haley’s status as first preferred candidate jumped from 6% in August to 16% in October, while DeSantis declined as Iowans’ first preferred candidate from 19% to 16%.

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When asked who their second choice was, 27% of voters selected DeSantis and 17% selected Haley. Twenty-two percent of respondents said they were actively considering Haley.

“I feel like she’s fresh, and I liked what she said about how the things that she did as governor of South Carolina — I mean … she’s a strong woman,” voter Kristy Beckwith, 60, of Ankeny, Iowa, told NBC News.

This comes as Haley’s performance in the last two GOP debates has exceeded expectations, leading to a surge in the polls and criticism from Trump’s campaign, which has traditionally aimed a majority of his mudslinging at DeSantis.

The Florida governor was projected to be Trump’s fiercest competitor in the 2024 Republican primary but is losing support in battleground states New Hampshire and Iowa to Haley. In New Hampshire, Haley soared to 19% among voters, while DeSantis fell to 10%.

Several other polls are indicating that Haley is making significant progress to outpace DeSantis in the primary. A national poll last week from USA Today and Suffolk University found that Haley is garnering 11% support among likely Republican voters, just 1 percentage point behind DeSantis at 12.3%. Haley’s support is up from her 4.49% standing, and DeSantis is down from garnering 22.86% when USA Today and Suffolk conducted the same poll in June.

Haley is the only candidate who could beat President Joe Biden by a considerable margin in the general election, according to a CNN poll and an NBC News poll after the first debate, noting her popularity among independents. However, DeSantis maintains his second-place standing with a RealClearPolitics average of 12.6% compared to Haley’s 8.3%.

“Public polling in October hasn’t historically been indicative of who will win the Iowa Caucus and it won’t be this time either,” Andrew Romeo, communications director for DeSantis, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “We are seeing Ron DeSantis continue to build momentum in the Hawkeye State, and Team Trump is, too — which is exactly why they are once again using the entirety of their media buy in Iowa attacking the governor with false negative ads.

“Ron DeSantis has the former president on defense in Iowa because he is out-working him, out-organizing him, and has a message to revive this nation that continues to resonate with the Iowa electorate,” Romeo continued.

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The NBC News-Des Moines Register-Mediacom poll surveyed 404 likely Republican caucusgoers and was conducted Oct. 22-26. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Haley’s campaign for comment.