Vice President JD Vance dominates a hypothetical 2028 GOP presidential primary field in New Hampshire, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are tied atop the Democratic heap, according to a years-early poll of the early primary state.
Vance leads the list of potential GOP candidates with 56 percent support. No other Republican cracked double digits; the next closest would-be contender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, had just 8 percent support. He was followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, former Rep. Liz Cheney, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (who won 43 percent of the primary vote in the state in 2024), Vivek Ramaswamy, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Sen. Ted Cruz.
Buttigieg, who finished second in the state’s 2020 presidential primary, is tied with Newsom at 23 percent. They’re followed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at 9 percent and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) at 7 percent. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who narrowly won New Hampshire last year, finished fifth among the Democrats that Saint Anselm polled with just 6 percent support.
Trailing Harris were Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — who twice won the state’s Democratic primary but is not expected to run again — and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who finished third in the state in 2020. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer rounded out the list. The survey was conducted online Aug. 26-27 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
Nearly all of the top Democrats have visited the state over the past year to headline party fundraisers or campaign for the party’s candidates — trips typical of presidential aspirants to what has historically been the first-in-the-nation primary state. Buttigieg retains a loyal following in New Hampshire from his 2020 bid, and interest in Newsom has soared among Democratic activists as he counterattacks the Trump administration on redistricting.
Big Republican names have largely stayed away from New Hampshire since the election, though Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) visited the state days before launching her gubernatorial bid.
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