New Hampshire Poll: GOP’s Karoline Leavitt Takes Lead over Democrat Pappas in Battleground 1st District

Republican Karoline Leavitt has taken a commanding lead over incumbent Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) in the contentious First Congressional District race in New Hampshire, according to a poll published Tuesday.

The poll, conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center, found Leavitt six points ahead of Pappas, garnering 51 percent compared to Pappas’s 45 percent. Four percent of respondents said they were undecided.

The poll was taken October 28 and October 29, about a week out from election day.

The results signal Leavitt, who is 25 and angling to become the youngest member of Congress, has built momentum in the final stretch of the race, a point Leavitt noted on social media after the poll was published.

“This poll is reflective of our grassroots MOVEMENT and MOMENTUM behind our team!” Leavitt wrote. “Chris Pappas has failed us. It’s time for new leadership. 1 week until victory!”

Leavitt, a former Trump assistant press secretary, defied primary polls and beat out her Republican competitors handily in September after running an aggressive campaign that aligned closely with former President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.

The Defending Main Street PAC, which supports centrist Republicans, spent more than a million dollars during the primary targeting Leavitt as a “woke Gen-Zer,” but during her victory speech, Leavitt embraced her young age.

“As many of you know, my youth is one of the many reasons that I felt compelled to run for Congress in the first place,” Leavitt said. “Because it’s my generation of Americans, your children, your grandchildren, who are not being served well by the current state of our education system, our media, and our entire culture.”

The poll showed support for Leavitt has swung ten points in her favor compared with the last poll, taken in September. Leavitt trailed Pappas by eight points in that poll, 41 percent to 49 percent.

Leavitt’s lead comes despite Pappas outspending her by nearly a million dollars, according to the latest data on Open Secrets. The same data reveals that the two candidates have each taken nearly $8 million worth of hits from negative ads placed by outside spending groups, indicating the district has become a highly competitive and heated environment.

The poll also tested top issues for Granite Staters and, like most polls nationally, “the economy/inflation” was overwhelmingly the top issue at 39 percent. Abortion came in at 19 percent, “elections/voting” came in at nine percent, and “government spending/taxes” came in at six percent. Several other issues came in under five percent.

For the First District portion of the poll, 791 likely voters weighed in, and the margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.