Donald Trump aims to solidify his position as the clear frontrunner for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in South Carolina’s primary this Saturday. Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, his only remaining challenger, is banking on a strong showing in her home state to bolster her underdog campaign.
Trump is expected to easily win the primary in the Southern state, marking the fifth victory in a row for him in the Republican nominating process. Despite facing numerous legal challenges, Trump has maintained his dominance throughout the campaign, triumphing in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and eliminating many competitors along the way.
According to polling data from the website 538, Trump maintains a substantial lead of 30 percentage points on average across South Carolina. The eventual Republican nominee will go head-to-head against Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 election.
Despite being behind in the polls, Nikki Haley, a South Carolina native who served as the state’s governor from 2011 to 2017, has rejected suggestions that a loss in her home state would lead her to drop out of the presidential race. Haley emphasized during a campaign event in Greenville, South Carolina, on Tuesday that the United States doesn’t crown kings, and she affirmed her commitment to continue her campaign regardless of the primary’s outcome.
Haley has made clear her intention to continue her campaign through Super Tuesday in early March, a critical point in the primary calendar when 15 states and one U.S. territory, including Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina, will hold their primaries. These contests will allocate approximately one-third of the delegates to July’s Republican National Convention, where the party’s nominee will be selected.
However, a decisive win for Trump, who is 77 years old, in the South Carolina primary on Saturday would likely intensify pressure on Haley, aged 52, to reconsider her candidacy. There would be growing calls for her to withdraw from the race, allowing the former president to focus entirely on his campaign against Biden. Already, the president is treating Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee and portraying him as a significant threat to the nation.
Voting will take place on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET (1200 to 0000 GMT) in South Carolina.
South Carolina’s primary is characterized as “open,” meaning that any registered voter can participate. This openness could potentially benefit Nikki Haley if independents and Democrats, who often lean towards her rather than Trump, show up in large numbers.
In a departure from her earlier approach in the campaign, Haley has launched pointed criticisms against Trump in the lead-up to Saturday’s vote. She has cautioned Republican voters that nominating Trump for a third consecutive time will likely result in defeat for the party.
Haley, whose foreign policy expertise is a cornerstone of her campaign, has shifted her focus in recent days to critique Trump’s approach toward Russia in the wake of Alexei Navalny’s death, the prominent opposition figure in Russia.
She has faulted Trump for delaying his response to Navalny’s passing and for refraining from directly attributing blame to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Additionally, she condemned Trump’s recent statements indicating a reluctance to defend NATO allies in the event of a Russian aggression if he perceived they hadn’t contributed enough to defense spending.
In response, Trump has attacked Haley’s intelligence, dubbing her “birdbrain,” and consistently highlights endorsements from prominent South Carolina Republicans, including Governor Henry McMaster, as evidence of his local support.
During a Fox News town hall this week, Trump remarked, “You’re not supposed to lose your home state,” underscoring his confidence in his standing in South Carolina.
Trump, originally from New York, notably lost the state in the 2016 election but still emerged victorious overall. In 2019, he changed his permanent residence to Florida.
With a substantial lead in national polls, Trump stands to potentially secure the Republican nomination by mid-March if he continues to win primaries at his current pace. This timing coincides closely with his first criminal trial, slated to commence on March 25 in New York City.
In this case, Trump faces charges related to allegedly falsifying business records to conceal payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels as part of a hush money agreement.
