© Reuters. Folks wait in line to solid their vote on the Northlake Hearth Station throughout the Republican presidential major election on Election Day, in Irmo, South Carolina, U.S. February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer
By James Oliphant
(Reuters) -Frontrunner Donald Trump hoped to make use of a large victory in South Carolina’s Republican major on Saturday to steer rival Nikki Haley to drop out of the presidential race. Whereas the result put Trump even nearer to clinching the social gathering’s nomination, Haley has vowed to press on.
Listed here are some takeaways from the South Carolina major:
ON HER OWN
Proper now, Haley appears to be a candidate and not using a social gathering. And apparently she’s OK with that.
Haley, as anticipated, was thumped by Trump in her house state of South Carolina, the place she served six years as governor. In 2016, when Trump rolled over U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Rubio’s house turf of Florida, Rubio dropped out instantly beneath considerably humiliating circumstances.
However Rubio had a job in Washington to return to and needed to fear about getting together with Trump ought to he win the White Home. Haley has no such issues.
As Haley has reiterated repeatedly on the path in South Carolina, she’s not gunning for a vice presidential slot and she or he doesn’t desire a cupboard job. When she leaves the race, as she could very effectively do within the coming weeks, she’ll solely have personal life awaiting her.
Haley’s motives for staying in stay largely hidden, and she or he is for certain to face rising stress to drop out.
However because the race has developed, she has turn out to be the voice of a portion of the Republican Celebration that feels rootless, these traditional-minded conservatives who backed presidential candidates akin to George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.
Haley is the closest factor they’ve now to a champion and advocate – and for now no less than, she retains a public platform to air her views.
“Forty % shouldn’t be some tiny group,” she instructed her supporters on Saturday, referring to her approximate vote share within the state.
“I am not giving up this battle when a majority of People disapprove of each Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” she added.
NO LOVE FROM VETS
Trump’s win gave him a clear sweep of all 5 nominating contests up to now: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands and now South Carolina. However Saturday’s outcome must be particularly irritating for Haley, who grew to become a political star within the Deep South state.
She invested extra time, cash and energy in campaigning forward of the first, whereas Trump held only a handful of rallies. On the identical time, she watched as a lot of the state’s political institution turned their again on her and sided with the previous president.
Maybe most vexing was how poorly Haley did with veterans after she took Trump to activity for criticizing her husband, an officer within the South Carolina Nationwide Guard at present on deployment to Africa, for being absent on the marketing campaign path. Haley additionally performed up Trump’s previous disrespectful feedback in regards to the late U.S. Senator John McCain, a adorned Vietnam vet.
In line with exit polls performed by Edison Analysis, Trump gained 68% of the vote of those that served within the U.S. Armed Forces in contrast with simply 32% for Haley.
Maybe it was not stunning given how veterans instructed Reuters that though they faulted Trump for his remarks, they had been standing by him. Some had been involved Haley’s aggressive international coverage views may lead the USA into one other conflict.
In line with Edison, 49% of Republicans felt the U.S. ought to take a “much less lively” function in world affairs, and Trump gained practically 80% of these voters. However Trump additionally gained the lion’s share of voters (61%) who believed that the U.S. ought to take a “extra lively” function.
If all of that left Haley and her crew scratching their heads, you couldn’t blame them.
BORDER BASH
Exit polls performed by Edison made one thing else clear: Trump has boxed out Haley on the difficulty of immigration and border safety.
That mattered in South Carolina, the place 39% of voters listed immigration as their high precedence. Of these voters, 82% backed Trump and simply 16% supported Haley. And of the 68% of voters who consider undocumented immigrants needs to be deported to their international locations of origin, 79% voted for Trump.
At marketing campaign occasions, Haley has argued that she, too, takes a tough line on immigration, however Republicans don’t appear to be shopping for it. Trump’s marketing campaign this week launched a TV advert titled “Weak point” that claimed Haley opposed Trump’s so-called Muslim “journey ban” throughout his administration and questioned the necessity for a wall alongside the U.S. border with Mexico.
The location FactCheck.org referred to as the Trump advert deceptive, noting that Haley has been supportive of a wall, however she would have favored a extra narrowly tailor-made ban than the one Trump instituted.
Regardless, Trump’s assaults appear to have caught, which doesn’t auger effectively for Haley’s prospects in a celebration more and more consumed by the difficulty of migrants coming throughout the border.
A WINTER OF DISCONTENT
Trump additionally continues to carry a robust benefit on the subject of voters who’re sad with the state of the economic system, which, sadly for Haley, includes a big share of the Republican voters.
A whopping 84% of voters surveyed by Edison stated the situation of economic system was “not so good or poor” regardless of low unemployment and a booming inventory market. About three-fourths of these voters backed Trump.
Even voters who stated their private monetary state of affairs was steady went for Trump in giant numbers. Solely the small fraction of voters who stated the economic system was in good condition most well-liked Haley.
Trump gained the vast majority of voters in all revenue brackets surveyed by Edison. In what has been his historic sample, he did greatest with those that lack a university diploma and those that earn lower than $50,000 a 12 months.
General, when you had been a voter upset with the established order in America, you went for Trump: 46% of respondents to the exit ballot stated they had been “indignant” in regards to the state of the nation, with Trump grabbing 85% of that vote.
