Monmouth primary poll finds Christie losing head-to-head against Trump 82%-12%

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is at 3% support in a new Monmouth University Republican presidential primary poll released today, representing growth from Monmouth’s previous polling – but Christie still remains deeply disliked by GOP primary voters and would lose a head-to-head contest against Donald Trump in a landslide.

The nationwide poll of Republican voters puts Trump in a clear lead for the Republican presidential nomination, with 54% of respondents saying they would support the former president. 22% said they’d support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, while no other candidate broke out of the single digits.

Christie’s 3% support puts him in a four-way tie for fourth place alongside former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina).

In a one-on-one contest against Trump, Christie would get 12% of the vote, a 70-point deficit against Trump’s 82%. Christie performed the worst of the three candidates Monmouth tested in head-to-head matchups; DeSantis trailed Trump 35%-55% and Scott trailed him 23%-72%.

What’s more, the poll also found that Christie is continuing his streak as the least popular presidential candidate among Republican primary voters. 55% of poll respondents had an unfavorable opinion of the former governor, compared to just 18% with a favorable opinion.

In fact, Christie has gone downhill since he officially launched his campaign last month. In Monmouth’s May poll, Christie’s favorability was 21%-47%; two months before that, it was 24%-42%. (Trump, by contrast, got a 77%-18% favorability score in today’s poll.)

Christie has worked harder than any other candidate in the race to occupy a clear anti-Trump lane, making his criticisms of his onetime ally the centerpiece of his campaign. That has earned him a niche of support among moderate Republicans, including many prominent New Jersey GOP figures who remain skeptical of Trump.

But New Jersey Republican voters don’t appear to have the same love for their former governor. In a Fairleigh Dickinson poll released in May, 70% of New Jersey Republicans said they wouldn’t even consider voting for Christie.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted from July 12 to July 19 with a sample size of 681 ‘registered voters who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party’ and a margin of error of +/- 5.9%.