Four in 10 Republicans in New Hampshire, home to the nation’s first presidential primary in 2020, want another GOP candidate to challenge President Trump, who is seeking reelection.
A new poll for New Hampshire Journal found that 40 percent believe a primary challenge “would be a good thing.”
And less than half, or 47 percent percent of Republicans, don’t want a primary challenge. Overall, 56 percent of New Hampshire voters said it would be good if Trump were challenged in their primary,
New Hampshire has a history of supporting primary challengers to sitting presidents, often hurting their chances for reelection. Biographer Craig Shirley, for example, wrote in today’s Washington Examiner, “Primary challenges to sitting presidents rarely succeed in defeating them for renomination — in fact, it hasn’t been done since the 1850s. But such intraparty challenges often work in driving sitting presidents from office.”
Michael Graham, political editor of NH Journal, said in his poll analysis, “The fact that 40 percent of Republicans in an early and influential state like New Hampshire think a Trump primary challenge would be ‘a good thing’ should get the GOP’s attention.”
He added, “The fact that nearly 60 percent of unaffiliated voters—all of whom can also vote in the 2020 primary—agree raises the stakes even higher.”
Part of the reason why there is some support for a primary challenge to Trump in New Hampshire is that his approval rating there is lower than in the rest of the nation, and among Republicans.
In the 2016 New Hampshire primary, Trump won with 35 percent, beating Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who won 15 percent. In the general election, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton won by just 2,736 votes.
