January 10, 2016
While polls show a mounting sense of disapproval in his home state, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's frequent campaigning in New Hampshire seems to be paying off.
A NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday shows Christie sitting third among likely Republican voters in the state.
He was the first choice as GOP candidate for 12 percent of those surveyed, sitting behind business man Donald Trump (30 percent) and Senator Marco Rubio (14 percent).
Among the broader Republican electorate in the state, which does single out likely voters, Christie was also at 12 percent. That's an improvement from October when he polled at 7 percent.
Nationally, Christie is not faring as well. According to the latest poll aggregation numbers from RealClearPolitics, he sits well behind the frontrunners, such as Trump, Rubio, Senator Ted Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
In Iowa, where the state's caucus serves as the first electoral event in the race, Christie is also well behind. A poll from the state's likely GOP voters released along with the New Hampshire survey placed him sixth.
But Christie's camp has gained momentum in New Hampshire, which serves as a key early primary in the race.
His steady rise there has caused the supporters of some of his GOP rivals to launch negative campaigns against Christie. The state's primary will take place on Feb. 9.
Some of his success could be attributed to an endorsement from an influential New Hampshire newspaper. That was slammed by the Star-Ledger's Tom Moran for not taking into account Christie's record in New Jersey.
The NBC/WSJ/Marist New Hampshire poll surveyed 569 likely Republican voters in the state and had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
