Neofascist Donald Trump’s march towards a third consecutive Republican presidential nomination continued tonight with an easy win in South Carolina’s 2024 GOP primary, where he cruised past Nikki Haley in her home state.
Networks called the primary for Trump almost as soon as polls had closed.
“That is really something,” Trump bragged to a gathering of his followers in Columbia. “This was a little sooner than we anticipated.”
Haley, meanwhile, refused to throw in the towel.
“I’m a woman of my word. I’m not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove of both Trump and Biden,” she said.
“In the next ten days, twenty-one states and territories will speak. They have the right to a real choice, not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate.”
“And I have a duty to give them that choice.”
With 23.91% reporting, Trump had 60.15% of the vote statewide (269,541 votes) and Haley had 39.21% (175,729 votes). Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who bowed out after failing to do well in Iowa, drew 1,611 votes, and four other now-withdrawn candidates each had a few hundred votes apiece.
Haley is besting Trump in three areas within South Carolina:
- Charleston County, where she has 61.89% of the vote
- Beaufort County, where she has 56.29% of the vote
- Richland County, where she has 58.97% of the vote
Beaufort County is “one of the South’s fastest-growing counties, primarily because of development south of the Broad River clustered along the U.S. Highway 278 corridor,” its Wikipedia entry notes. “The county’s northern portions have also grown steadily, due in part to the strong federal military presence around the city of Beaufort.” Beaufort County also encompasses Hilton Head Island.
Richland County is home to the state capital, Columbia. It is located in the geographic center of the state and has a population of 416,147.
Charleston County, as its name suggests, is home to the state’s largest city, Charleston. Located on the coast, it has a population of 408,235.
Because South Carolina is a “winner take all” state for the Republicans, Trump will get all of the delegates despite not winning anywhere close to all of the vote. South Carolina has fifty Republican National Convention delegates: 10 base at-large / 21 re: 7 congressional districts / 3 party / 16 bonus.
This isn’t the first time Trump has prevailed in a contested Republican presidential primary in South Carolina. In 2016, Trump bested Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Ben Carson, earning a plurality of 32.51% of the vote. Though over two-third of the Republican voters who turned out in that 2016 primary chose another candidate, Trump nevertheless walked away with all fifty delegates then too, because of the Republican Party’s “winner take all” rules.
Last year, Republicans like Chris Sununu argued that if the Republican field could be narrowed, Trump’s path to the nomination could be thwarted.
“Provided the field shrinks by Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Trump loses,” Sununu memorably declared August 21st, 2023 essay for The New York Times (If Republicans Narrow the Field, We Will Beat Trump). “He will always have his die-hard base, but the majority is up for grabs. Candidates who seize on the opportunity and present a clear contrast to the former president will earn the votes.”
The field did shrink by Iowa and New Hampshire. Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Larry Elder, Perry Johnson, Will Hurd, and Francis Suarez all bowed out before Iowa held its caucuses. By the time the New Hampshire presidential primary was held, Nikki Haley was the only remaining Trump rival.
It didn’t matter. Trump has won every contest thus far, proving Sununu wrong.
Haley has the resources to keep going, however.
She “has benefited from a self-replenishing assembly line of rich anti-Trump donors who are happy to continue financing what some privately concede is a futile effort,” a trio of New York Times political reporters observed a few days ago. They gave Republican strategist Kevin Madden the final quote in their article: “Candidates don’t run out of reasons to run… They run out of resources.”
While Trump and Haley spoke in South Carolina, President Biden was in Washington, D.C., hosting the nation’s governors at a black-tie dinner.
“We have a lot to do. The thing that makes me feel good about having the governors here is we have a tradition of doing things together,” Biden said.
“We fight like hell, we make sure that we get our points across. At the end of the day, we know who we work for. The objective is to get things done.”
“Politics have gotten too bitter,” Biden added, perhaps alluding to the toxicity Donald Trump promotes. “Politics has gotten too personal. It’s just not like it was.” Biden noted that he served at times when the parties had stark differences.