Trump wins South Carolina’s GOP primary, defeats Haley

donald trump has won the South Carolina Republican presidential primary, defeating Nikki Haley on its own turf as it completed its sweep of early voting states.

The race accelerates now: The slow march through early voting states is over and the primaries are now national. By March 12, 56% of the delegates to the Republican National Convention will have been awarded. And in most states, Republican delegates are the ones who win, meaning Haley doesn’t get any credit for her strong second-place finish. Since Haley hasn’t won so far, the finish line (1,215 delegates needed to clinch the nomination) could be in sight for Trump in a few weeks.

Trump dominates the Republican establishment, again: In case it wasn’t clear when he won the nomination in 2016, became president, expelled all but a select few Republican critics from office or the party, and then stormed into the 2024 race despite facing multiple accusations: The Republican Party belongs to Donald Trump. Trump’s success in Haley’s home state underscores how much has changed in less than a decade. Nor has it been a hostile takeover, however hostile Trump may be toward his rivals: the majority of Republican voters support Trump, and the parts of his personality that make establishment Republicans cringe are, as we have seen, actually a large part of them. part of his appeal to most voters.

Where does Haley go from here? There was once a narrow but tantalizing path for Haley to seriously challenge Trump for the Republican nomination. It all started by winning New Hampshire and her home state. But that potentially decisive stretch of the Republican primary is over. After Saturday’s projected loss, Haley’s campaign announced a tour of Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado and Utah starting Sunday, and she’s also spending money on advertising targeting Super Tuesday states. However, it is a more difficult question whether he will actually achieve any victories and begin to seriously challenge Trump in the delegate race.

There is no large enough pro-Haley coalition in the GOP primaries: Haley’s campaign has Long-Touted General Election Polls That shows her in a much stronger position than Trump in a hypothetical confrontation against Biden. But she can’t skip the step of defeating Trump in a primary for the first time. There has long been a theoretical pro-Haley coalition that includes moderate Republicans, independents who are allowed to vote in Republican primaries in some states and those Trump rejects, particularly college-educated suburban voters who have fled the party since Trump’s ascension in 2016. But that coalition is not supporting Haley in the primary, at least not strongly enough.

Tim Scott’s Veepstakes Audition: The most important outcome of the South Carolina primary may be the cozy relationship Trump appeared to develop with his former rival in the 2024 Republican primary, Sen. Tim Scott. The past few weeks may have served as Scott’s audition for the vice presidential nomination. He campaigned with Trump, appearing alongside him in a Fox News town hall and other interviews, and urged Haley, who nominated him to her Senate seat when she was governor, to withdraw from the race.