Vivek Ramaswamy Now 2nd In Race For US President Candidate Pick, Trump 1st

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once considered a chief rival of former president Donald Trump, has fallen behind two Indian-American presidential candidates in the latest GOP polls in the crucial early primary state of New Hampshire, a CNN survey showed.

According to the CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, Trump continues to be the first choice of 39 per cent of likely GOP primary voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

"That lags a bit behind his performance nationally, where Republican primary polling routinely finds Trump with majority support," the news channel reported.

Surprising is the continued sliding down of DeSantis. He has fallen behind two Indian-American candidates -- entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. While Ramaswamy's popularity continues to rise, Haley is fast catching up.

Ramaswamy now is next to Trump with 13 per cent support, closely followed by Haley at 12 per cent and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie at 11 per cent, CNN reported.

"DeSantis' decline stems from a sharp drop-off among moderates, from 26 per cent backing him in July to 6 per cent now. He fell a smaller 8 points among conservatives," the opinion poll said.

According to the CNN poll, Ramaswamy's increase is concentrated more among those who are not registered Republicans (up 16 points since July with that group while holding relatively steady among registered Republicans) and among younger likely voters (he's up 28 points among those younger than 35 and 11 points among those in the 35-49 age group while holding about even among those aged 50 or above).

Haley's increase is a bit larger among those with more formal education (up 11 points among those who have completed some postgraduate work and 15 points among other college graduates) and among moderates (she gained 18 points with the group) while her support among conservatives is roughly even with July, the poll showed.

The Trump campaign cheered the poll results saying that "Ron DeSantis has plummeted to the fifth place in the Granite State".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)