Trump wins South Carolina, beating Haley in her home state and further closing in on GOP nomination

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 7:01 PM EST, February 24, 2024


CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Donald Trump won South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday, beating former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight GOP nomination.

Trump has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, with wins already in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The former president’s latest victory will likely increase pressure on Haley, who was Trump’s former representative to the U.N. and South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, to leave the race.

A 2020 general 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.

South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary has historically been a reliable bellwether for Republicans. In all but one primary since 1980, the Republican winner in South Carolina has gone on to be the party’s nominee. The lone exception was Newt Gingrich in 2012.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-nikki-haley-south-carolina-primary-republicans-13237d287ce770e0a45e9bccee78e8ee

[Botany]

1. Go for it GOP. The man is a winner.

[Shermann]

2. It's surprising to me that she hung in long enough to lose her own state.

That kind of political loss that will stick with you.

[SunSeeker]

4. Her response to that is that Trimp lost his home state, LOL.

Republicans have no shame.

[Kennah]

6. If he implodes, for any reason, she's perfectly positioned to be the replacement candidate

[Shermann]

8. Good point

But why do campaigns always implode and never explode?

[Kennah]

9. I believe it's because things implode at the bottom of the ocean after they sink

[Dulcinea]

11. That's what she's hoping for.

She's hoping he's either incarcerated or deceased by November.

[FailureToCommunicate]

16. I'll take either, though I'd prefer the former.

Let justice prevail.

[littlemissmartypants]

13. She's announced that she's not quitting. She must still have money to burn.

[Barry Markson]

27. Haley is the RFKjr of the GOP

One wonders who is financing each of them.

[Novara]

33. She's hanging in there because she will be his replacement

If he is convicted, she can be the nominee.

[SunSeeker]

3. They called it like 7 seconds after the polls closed. Oh my, Nikki.

Last edited Sun Feb 25, 2024, 08:43 PM - Edit history (2)

Your home state went for the guy blowing racist, sexist dog whistles at you.

[Novara]

34. She got nearly 40%. This is big trouble for the racist, sexist dog.

It means the electorate isn't sold on him. By all accounts his margin should have been much greater.

[Lanius]

37. I want to believe that, but if history is a lesson for us it's Republicans always return home

Democrats are the ones who take their ball and go home if they’re pissed. Republicans let their shared hatred of the democrats unify them come the general election.

[SunSeeker]

41. I agree.

Marianne Williamson was previously polling just as well against Biden as Nikki Haley was against Trump. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/marianne-williamson-polls-media-coverage/

But Haley kept climbing up while Williamson's campaign imploded. Williamson imploded because Democrats want to win against Trump, and Biden has shown he is our strongest candidate against Trump.

[TexasDem69]

5. So he's the nominee

We knew that. Now every reasonable person in the U.S. needs to turn out for Biden in November

[fierywoman]

7. How many actually turned out to vote?

[littlemissmartypants]

12. They're still counting.

[former9thward]

14. About 900,000.

About 130,000 voted in the Democratic primary.

[fierywoman]

15. Thanks! Any idea how many registered R's there are in S Carolina?

[SunSeeker]

18. There are 1,530,535 people registered as Republicans and 1,518,588 people registered as Democrats in South Carolina.

https://independentvoterproject.org/voter-stats/sc

[fierywoman]

21. Thanks!

[BComplex]

35. That's a lot more registered democrats than I thought SC had! That's good to know!!

I'd love to see SC turn blue!

[SunSeeker]

17. With 94% reporting, 702,609 people voted in the South Carolina primary.

https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/primaries-and-caucuses/results/south-carolina

[fierywoman]

20. So less than half the R's came out to vote, and, of them, approximately 40% voted

for Haley ?

[onenote]

24. Which could mean different things.

Maybe it means more than half of South Carolina repubs don't like either Trump or Haley. Maybe it means that a lot of South Carolina repubs know Trump is going to be the nominee, support him, but didn't feel like spending part of their Saturday going to vote for what is already a done deal.

People tend to overthink primary results. For example, in 2020, even after all of the other Democratic candidates had dropped out and Joe had enough delegates to win the nomination, he only got around 65% of the vote in the New York primary. Under 2 million out of 6 million registered Democrats voted. And, of course, it didn't mean a thing as far as the general election.

[ificandream]

26. A lot of Dems could have crossed over to vote for Haley.

I suspect that happened, though the difference in voter count between Dems and Repughs has me a little concerned.

[onenote]

32. What I've read is that between 4 and 5 percent of the So. Car. voters were Democrats

But I don't have any idea how they split between Trump and Haley. I'm sure some crossed over to vote for Haley, but others may have voted for Trump in an effort to further weaken Haley, who is perceived as a stronger candidate against Biden with respect to independents and some Republicans.

[Demsrule86]

10. This is not good news for him in a General though...Nikki Haley has about 40% of the vote

Trump is a weak candidate...Both O'Donnell and Rachel have said this.

[SunSeeker]

19. Correct. Biden got 96.2% of the Dem vote.

https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/primaries-and-caucuses/results/south-carolina

[onenote]

25. An apples to orange comparison.

Haley matches Trump in name recognition in south carolina and spent over $15 million in ads in the state. Joe faced only two opponents -- Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips who probably had less than 10 percent name recognition and very little money to spend. Only 130,000 voters came out for the Democratic primary in South Carolina, which is more a reflection of the fact that the outcome was a foregone conclusion than any weakness is Democratic support for Joe.
But the real bottom line is that people read too much into primary results. Joe swept the South Carolina primary getting 126,000 votes. Trump won, more narrowly and with significant opposition, getting over 450,000 votes. And when it gets to November, the republican candidate is going to win South Carolina, no matter who it is.

[SunSeeker]

30. Both Biden and Trump are running as "incumbents." Trump got 59.8%; Joe got 96.2%.

Of course SC is a red state and the GOP candidate will win there in November, that is not the point. And yes, Trump had "significant opposition," but that opposition won't be dropping out anytime soon, which is not good for him in the general election. Ask Hillary Clinton.

[onenote]

31. If Trump's opponents had the name recognition equal to Williamson and Phillips, he'd have gotten 80+ percent.

Ramaswamy got less than 1 percent of the vote in the primaries in which he ran. What do you think the vote would have been in a straight Trump v. Ramaswamy contest? And what do you think Joe's vote would be if he faced Bernie and/or Gavin Newsom in the primaries? It certainly wouldn't be 90 percent.

My point, again, is that comparing Trump's performance to Joe's is comparing apples and oranges.

[SunSeeker]

36. Williamson has plenty of name rec. She was just soundly rejected.

I see you insist on repeating the Trump talking points.

[onenote]

38. I don't have fucking clue what the "Trump" talking points are.

And suggesting that a fellow DUer is spouting Trump talking points because he or she offers a fact-based opinion on the significance, or lack thereof, of primary results is shitty behavior on your part.

Oh, and if you look it up, you'll find that "favorability" polls for Williamson and Phillips indicate that more than half the voters have no opinion of them because they basically don't know anything about them.

[SunSeeker]

40. Minimizing Biden's 96.2% win is Trump talking point territory.

Your opinion is not "fact based." People know what Marianne Williamson stands for. She's a best selling author. She was polling just as well against Biden as Nikki Haley was against Trump. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/marianne-williamson-polls-media-coverage/

Her campaign imploded because Democrats want to win against Trump, and Biden has shown he is our strongest candidate against Trump.

[live love laugh]

22. Backwards fucks.

[CapnSteve]

23. Biden wins SC with 96.2% of the vote.

Super Tuesday is shaping up to be a dry run for the general and it is not looking good for Donnie Little Hands. He will lose and drag the rest of the GOP down with him.

Women will save democracy (again!).

[republianmushroom]

28. 37 months and counting

[LiberalLovinLug]

29. I was wanting, but not wanting, her to pull out a miracle win

I thought maybe, just maybe, Haley would attract enough never Trumpers, and home State loyalists to barely win.

That would have been a least a brief pause in Republicans race to elect a rapist and criminal and traitor as the leader they look up to leading them forward.

Make them think a little.

But I also was afraid that if she won, it may actually have emboldened and given courage to other moderates in coming States to believe Trump can lose. And all it would take was a little momentum and she wins another State. Then all hell would break lose in the Republican party. That would be fun to watch.

But the result from a Haley win for the nomination, would be a disaster for Biden I'm afraid. Against another old man, Biden can win. Against a younger quick smart woman, who can play act that she's a moderate? I'd be worried.

[Blue Idaho]

39. If 5% of republicans sit out the Nov 5th election

Then Haley will have inflicted a fatal blow to TFG.