In mid-August, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley reached the lowest point of her campaign. She was sitting at a 3 percent — a personal low — in FiveThirtyEight’s poll aggregate for the Republican primary.
Then she appeared at the GOP’s first debate on Aug. 23.
Now, just after the third debate, Haley has reached her highest stance ever in that poll aggregate.
Haley is rising even faster in the individual polls. She’s risen seven points in four months, according to the Wall Street Journal‘s poll from Tuesday.
The candidates debated Wednesday night, too recently for the polls to gauge its effect. However, Haley seems to be expecting a bump.
“I love all the attention, fellas,” Haley said at the debate, referring to attacks by colleagues. “Thank you for that.”
Of course, former President Donald Trump was leading the Wall Street Journal poll. He was commanding 59 percent of the primary electorate, just weeks before the Iowa caucus on Jan. 15.
Still, Haley is looking at a bright future.
The day after debate, one pundit compared Haley’s trajectory to that of John McCain in primary campaign against George W. Bush… and McCain went on to be the GOP’s nominee eight years later.
Pollster Nate Cohn said on The Daily —
George W. Bush is really the only candidate in the history of modern political polling whose position in the Republican primary looks a lot like Donald Trump’s position today.
Both Trump and Bush were polling over 60 percent nationwide. They had a lot of broad appeal in the Republican Party. Bush wasn’t running for a third Republican nomination, but it would be the third Bush Republican nomination…
John McCain just kept gaining and gaining in New Hampshire… and it propelled him to a new level nationwide.
McCain ultimately won seven states in the election, even though a few months earlier he had been losing 65 to 10 in the polls nationwide…
She could go on and win seven states. And it would probably create a real impression of success and viability as a challenger to Trump.
Haley is on track to lose this year’s presidential primary… but she may be winning the long game.
The Horn editorial team