If Mike Huckabee decides to seek the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, a new PPP poll shows that he’d be poised to claim the key primary state of South Carolina–that is, unless the state’s conservative Senator Jim DeMint enters the race as well.
When PPP polled the state with a slate of potential candidates that didn’t include DeMint, Huckabee came out on top with 26% of the vote, followed by Mitt Romney at 20%, Sarah Palin at 18%, and Newt Gingrich at 13%.Yet when DeMint was added to the mix, Huckabee’s support fell to 20%, dropping him to second place behind DeMint, who garnered 24% of the vote.
Adding DeMint did not shake up the order of the other candidates, with each moving one slot down to accommodate the new front runner. In that scenario, Romney’s support dipped to 17%, with Palin (12%) and Gingrich (10%) losing some supporters to DeMint as well.
The fact that DeMint leads in the hypothetical South Carolina primary is not really surprising, given his home state advantage, and his high popularity within the state and with conservatives in general; the poll pegged his approval rating with his Republican constituents at 77%. What is surprising, though, is that the Tea Party favorite leads by only four points over Huckabee. Indeed, the poll also found that only 40% of respondents thought DeMint should run for President, while nearly as many, 37%, said he should not.
That results are great news for Huckabee, as they show that he can compete against a popular Senator in that candidate’s own state. They also continue a trend in recent polls that show Huckabee drawing strong support form both conservatives and moderates to top his rivals. Without DeMint in the mix, 28% of conservatives broke for Huckabee, versus 17% who went for that demographic’s second choice, Mitt Romney.
As the first Southern primary and one of the earliest overall in the nominating process, the South Carolina primary can throw a lot of momentum behind whoever wins there. Newt Gingrich has stated that if he does run, he’ll focus heavily on the state since it has chosen the last five Republican nominees.
The PPP poll was conducted January 28-30 among 559 Republican voters in South Carolina. It has a margin of error of 4.1%.
