Trump Defeats Nikki Haley in South Carolina
Donald Trump won South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday, easily beating former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight GOP nomination.
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The Associated Press declared Trump the winner as polls closed statewide at 7 p.m. That race call was based on an analysis of AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of Republican South Carolina primary voters. The survey confirmed the findings of pre-Election Day polls, showing Trump far outpacing Haley statewide.
Trump has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, adding to previous wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Haley is facing growing pressure to leave the race but says she’s not going anywhere despite losing the state where she was governor from 2011 to 2017.
This marks another defeat for former U.N. Ambassador Haley, who vowed to continue fighting Mr Trump despite her many primary losses.
Ms Haley stayed resolute even after losing to the “none of these candidates” box listed on Nevada ballot papers earlier this month.
A 2020 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden is becoming increasingly inevitable. Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, but was unable to dent Trump’s momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Trump will hamstring him against Biden.
Trump Celebrated his Victory in the South Carolina
Donald Trump celebrated his comfortable victory in the South Carolina Republican primary by predicting that he would beat Joe Biden in a likely presidential election rematch in November.
The former president claimed his fourth primary win on Saturday night (February 24), beating rival Nikki Haley in her home state. “We’re going to be up here on November 5, and we’re going to look at Joe Biden,” Mr Trump said as the crown loudly cheered him. “He’s destroying our country, and we’re going to say, ‘Joe, you’re fired. Get out. Get out, Joe. You’re fired.’” Mr Trump also compared himself to Al Capone during a CPAC speech on Saturday.
A majority believe Mr Trump is a candidate who can emerge victorious in November’s general election, while only about half say the same of Ms Haley. Voters were also far more likely to view Mr Trump than Ms Haley as someone who would “stand up and fight for people like you” and to say he would keep the country safe. And about seven in 10 say he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president.
Mr Trump’s voters also backed his more nationalist views — they are more likely than Haley’s supporters to have lukewarm views of the Nato alliance or even consider it wrong for the U.S. to say immigrants are hurting the country and to say immigration is the top issue facing the country.
