The best-laid plans of politicians and pollsters often go awry. Thursday night was supposed to be the sixth debate of the Republican presidential primary, and three candidates were originally lined up to participate: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. But Christie dropped out of the race last week, and on Tuesday, Haley announced she would not participate in any more debates unless they were against former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden. With only one candidate left to take the stage, the debate was scrubbed.
But we still have a poll to share! Before each of the first four GOP debates this cycle, 538 partnered with Ipsos to take the temperature of likely Republican primary voters heading into the event. We did the same with this one, and even though there will be no post-debate poll to compare them to, the results still shed some interesting light on the state of the GOP presidential contest as we head into New Hampshire’s primary next week. Click here for the full results of the poll.