26 points

Trump leads Haley in South Carolina by 26 points, poll shows

Haley has struggled to gain more support in her home state of South Carolina.

By KIERRA FRAZIER

Donald Trump holds a 26-point lead in South Carolina over Nikki Haley weeks before the state’s Feb. 24 primary, according to a Washington Post-Monmouth University poll released Thursday.

The former president garnered 58 percent support among potential Republican primary voters while Haley captured 32 percent support in her home state.

The poll comes as Trump seeks to derail the former South Carolina governor’s presidential campaign along with his recent victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. Haley has struggled to gain more support in South Carolina, consistently polling 30 points behind Trump.

Haley has committed to staying in the Republican presidential race through Super Tuesday but hasn’t made it clear whether she’d still be in the race by the time the party’s nominating convention rolls around in July.

Trump holds majority support among both men — 62 percent — and women — 54 percent — in South Carolina, the poll finds. Trump also has high levels of support among white evangelicals — 69 percent — and voters without a college degree — 68 percent.

Seven in 10 voters also believe Trump would definitely or probably beat President Joe Biden in November.

The poll also found that Trump’s legal problems are not much of a concern among South Carolina’s Republican primary voters. Sixty percent say the GOP should keep Trump on the ticket if he wins the nomination but is convicted of a crime related to the 2020 election.

The Post-Monmouth poll was conducted Jan. 26 to 30 among a random sample of 815 potential GOP primary voters in South Carolina. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points among the full sample of potential Republican primary voters.