The Horse Race: Nikki Haley's Post-Debate Moment

with Brittany Bernstein

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Vivek Ramaswamy stole the spotlight the night of the debate — but it's Nikki Haley who seems to have made the most of her time on the stage.

A new memo from Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, sent to fundraisers and allies of the former president and obtained by Axios, shows that Haley "has surged" in Iowa since the debate and that she and Ramaswamy have risen in New Hampshire to essentially tie with Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

"DeSantis has flatlined, Haley has surged, and Ramaswamy is seen as last week's debate winner," the memo reads. "With Haley's surge, DeSantis finds himself with another challenger for a distant 2nd place besides Ramaswamy — Nikki Haley."

The post-debate polling found Trump at 44 percent in Iowa, followed by DeSantis at 18 percent, Haley at 10 percent, and Ramaswamy and Senator Tim Scott (R., S.C.) tied at 7 percent, per Fabrizio's memo. In New Hampshire, the polling found Trump at 48 percent, DeSantis at 11 percent, Haley and Ramaswamy at 9 percent, and Scott tied with former New Jersey governor Chris Christie at 5 percent.

Responses to questions about the debate revealed Ramaswamy as the "clear winner," followed by Haley and DeSantis, who tied for second, the memo adds.

A new poll from Public Opinion Strategies, which is working for the DeSantis campaign, also confirmed that Haley is rising in Iowa after the debate.

A Washington Post/FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos effort to track support before and after the debate also yielded good news for Haley, finding that the number of Republican debate watchers who said they are considering supporting her candidacy increased from 29 to 46 percent.

And the campaign reaped the benefits; it says it received more online grassroots donations in the first 24 hours after the debate than in any other single day since Haley entered the race in February. Meanwhile, traffic to Haley's website had risen tenfold, and she was the second-most Googled candidate following the debate — behind Ramaswamy, who topped Google's list of trending searches the morning after the debate as the subject of more than a million searches in 24 hours.