Poll: Democrats Favor Ocasio-Cortez; GOPs Favor VP Vance In NH Primary In 2028

By Andrew E. Smith, Ph.D., InDepth NH

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez heads the field of prospective Democratic candidates in the 2028 New Hampshire presidential primary, followed closely by former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

Ocasio-Cortez draws much of her support from self-described socialists and progressives, while support for Buttigieg is spread about evenly among progressives, liberals, and moderates.

Vice President JD Vance continues to lead on the Republican side, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio has closed the gap significantly over the past few months. Vance’s support comes mainly from conservatives while Rubio gets more of his support from moderates and libertarians.

Two-thirds of likely Republican primary voters want the 2028 candidate to build on Trump’s presidency rather than go in a different direction, but less than half say that a Trump endorsement in the race would make them more likely to support that candidate.

These findings are based on the latest Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Granite State Panel members were sent an invitation to complete the survey and 1,206 completed the survey online. In addition, 252 New Hampshire residents completed the survey after receiving an invitation via text message to complete the survey.

Overall, 1,458 New Hampshire residents completed the survey online between July 15 and July 20, 2026. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2.6 percent. Included in the sample were 648 likely 2028 Democratic presidential primary voters (margin of sampling error +/- 3.8 percent) and 579 likely 2028 Republican presidential primary voters (MOE +/- 4.1 percent).

For complete press release and detailed tabular results, please click:https://scholars.unh.edu/survey_center_polls/983/

This story was originally published by InDepth NH.