Donald Trump won the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, according to the Associated Press, delivering a blow to rival Nikki Haley in her home state as the former president continues his sweep of the 2024 nominating contests.
AP called the race right after polls closed. Trump’s victory solidifies his path to the GOP nomination ahead of Super Tuesday, where he is leading in state polls. He has sought to quickly wrap up the nomination as he faces a flurry of legal troubles and pivot to a rematch with President Joe Biden.
Trump held a wide lead with a very small percentage of votes counted. Haley has vowed to stay in the race regardless of the outcome in South Carolina.
Trump is still short of the delegates needed, but his win over Haley in the state where she served as governor, leaves him with a clear and unobstructed path to the nomination.
Haley is Trump’s last major challenger in a race that has seen the former president dominate every Republican primary contest, with commanding wins in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada ahead of South Carolina.
Super Tuesday
Trump took the stage in Columbia, South Carolina, shortly after the race was called, joined by daughter-in-law Lara Trump and other allies, including U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., considered to be a potential running mate.
“This was a little sooner than we anticipated,” Trump said. “An even bigger win than we anticipated.”
The race shifts to Super Tuesday on March 5, when more than a dozen states hold Republican contests, but Haley is likely to face increased pressure to exit the race and questions about whether her impressive slate of donors will continue funding a long-shot bid.
Trump has been eager to wrap up the primary fight quickly and pivot to a November rematch against Biden with the GOP front-runner’s four criminal cases — involving 91 felony counts — and multiple civil lawsuits, ramping up this spring and threatening to keep him off the campaign trail.
Legal issues
The legal issues are also impacting his finances. Trump’s political operation has spent more than $50 million on his defense and he owes hundreds of millions of dollars in court judgments.
A second Trump administration would mark a major policy shift in Washington. Trump has pledged a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, large tariffs hikes on imports, and domestic tax cuts. He has also floated abandoning NATO allies who don’t keep up defense spending targets, sparking worries from European leaders.
Trump pressured lawmakers earlier this month to kill a bipartisan proposal that sought to address the migrant crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border and unlock over $60 billion in Ukraine aid, urging them to hold out for a “perfect” deal on immigration.
Tightened grip
He has sought to tighten his grip on the party’s campaign apparatus, endorsing Lara Trump to help lead the Republican National Committee after publicly urging current chair, Ronna McDaniel, to step down. McDaniel has been in discussions to leave her role after the primary, according to people familiar.
For Haley, the result is a humiliating defeat after she poured her campaign’s resources into the state, spending more time and money there than Trump. Polls ahead of the primary consistently showed her trailing the former president by wide margins, more than 23 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics state average.
Haley and her two allied super political action committees poured millions of dollars into the state while Trump spent very little on advertising. She urged voters to turn the page from Trump, 77, and Biden, 81, to embrace leaders from a younger generation, and appealed to moderate Republicans, independents and Democrats to capitalize on South Carolina’s open primary system.
The contest became increasingly acrimonious, with Trump, who mocked Haley with derogatory nicknames and questioned why her husband, a National Guard member deployed to Africa, was not on the trail with her, as he sought to pressure her from the race.
Haley in turn questioned Trump’s mental fitness after he confused her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and telling voters that the former president’s policies and legal woes would ensure “chaos” if he were reelected.
The former U.N. envoy under Trump also targeted her onetime boss’ foreign policy, assailing him for threats to NATO members and for obstructing aid to Ukraine — despite the GOP base’s embrace of the former president’s more populist views.
With assistance from Stephanie Lai, Hadriana Lowenkron, Gregory Korte, Christian Hall and Alicia Diaz.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
