A majority of voters in New Hampshire say that Vice President Kamala Harris bested former President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s debate, according to a new public opinion survey

A Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll released on Friday indicates that 58% of New Hampshire voters said that Harris won the showdown, with 22% picking Trump as the winner. Eighteen percent of those questioned gave poor marks to both the Democratic and Republican Party presidential nominees.

The debate, which was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, was the first and potentially the only debate between the vice president and the former president.

According to the poll, which was conducted Wednesday and Thursday, entirely after the debate, Harris leads Trump 51%-43% among New Hampshire voters. Harris’ eight-point margin is up a point from the previous Saint Anselm College survey, from August.

Eighty-six percent of respondents said they watched the debate, and Harris held a 13-point lead over Trump among those voters who viewed the primetime showdown.

Despite the voter attention paid to the debate, the favorability of both candidates remained stable in the survey. Harris continued to hold a 51%-48% favorable/unfavorable rating, identical to her August numbers. Trump improved slightly, to a 43%-57% favorable/unfavorable rating.

“Vice President Kamala Harris was the clear winner in her debate with former President Donald Trump,” New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College executive director Neil Levesque said.

But Levesque noted that “the polarized partisan environment leaves her little room to grow, so she sees only a slight improvement in her lead with just under two months to go until Election Day.”

Presidential race winds through the 603

Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz, the wife of Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, visited New Hampshire on Thursday, as the Harris’ campaign aims to hold onto their lead in New England’s only swing state.

Walz spoke with Harris campaign volunteers during a stop in Manchester before joining educators for a Harris-Walz house party.

The trip by Walz came eight days after the vice president made her first and likely only stop in New Hampshire since replacing President Joe Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 national ticket a month and a half ago.

Trump has yet to stop in New Hampshire since winning the state’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary in late January. But the former president said in a radio interview last week that he would return to the Granite State before Election Day.

Friends with deep pockets

With New Hampshire’s Sept. 10 state primary now in the rearview mirror, it’s game on in the battle to succeed four-term Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

And the two major party candidates – GOP nominee and former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Party nominee and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig – are going to get a lot of help from allied groups.

With the race considered the only competitive gubernatorial election in the nation this year, both the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) and the rival Republican Governors Association (RGA) are throwing plenty of resources into the Granite State showdown.

The RGA during the primary season transferred roughly $3 million directly into Ayotte’s campaign.

Expect that figure to be amplified during the eight-week sprint to Election Day on Nov. 5.

“RGA is fully committed to keeping New Hampshire in Republican hands to ensure New Hampshire’s path to success continues, and there’s no one better than Kelly Ayotte to do just that. Joyce Craig failed Manchester and would do the same to the entire Granite State if given the opportunity,” RGA communications director Courtney Alexander told the Monitor.

The rival DGA has already shelled out roughly $11 million in the race – with some of the funds going to Put New Hampshire First, an aligned super PAC, and some going into the coffers of the New Hampshire Democratic Party – to take aim at Ayotte.

The state party this week quickly went up with two ads – that are running across New Hampshire on TV and online. One spot targets Ayotte over the combustible issue of abortion with the other ad highlighting her “lucrative” service on corporate boards.

“We’re putting our money where our mouth is,” DGA deputy communications director Izzi Levy told the Monitor. “We are not planning on letting up for a minute.”

“The DGA is fully behind Joyce Craig flipping the corner office, as she runs to lower the cost of housing, keep families safe and protect abortion rights. In contrast, Kelly Ayotte has proven she can’t be trusted to do anything but put herself first,” Levy added.

The last word on Tuesday’s primary

Sununu, who narrowly came out on top in a crowded and competitive Republican primary field in 2016 before going on to win the first of his four two-year terms as governor, said at Thursday’s New Hampshire GOP Unity Breakfast that “primaries suck, they do, right. They are really, really, hard, They are emotionally draining.”