Trump wins SC primary moments after polls close, deals Haley crushing blow in her own state: ‘Bigger win than we expected’
COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Donald Trump defeated GOP rival Nikki Haley in the South Carolina primary Saturday night, securing yet another win for the former president.
The race was called almost immediately after the polls closed at 7 p.m., with Trump securing all 29 winner-take-all state delegates. With some 65 percent of the vote in, Trump was up by roughly 20 points.
“This was a little sooner than we anticipated. And even a bigger win than we anticipated,” Trump said to applause on stage at the state fairgrounds in Columbia moments after the victory.
“I have never seen the Republican Party as United as it is right now,” he said.
The former president notably did not mention Haley at all in his remarks.
Trump was joined on stage by several South Carolina Republican leaders, including Sen. Tim Scott, who, despite being appointed to Congress by Haley in 2013, endorsed Trump after he dropped out of the primary race.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has endorsed Trump but has butted heads with him in the past, was heavily booed by the crowd when he was introduced.
Haley — who was a two-term governor in the Palmetto State — was banking on doing better in her home state than she did in Iowa and New Hampshire.
In her concession speech Saturday night, Haley congratulated Trump on the victory but said he is not the Republican candidate best suited to beat President Biden in November.
She also announced she is not going anywhere just yet.
“What I saw today was South Carolina’s frustration with our country’s direction. I’ve seen that sense of frustration nationwide,” Haley told supporters at a campaign event.
“This has never been about me or my political future. We need to beat Joe Biden in November. I don’t believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden,” she declared, adding that Trump “drives people away.”
“There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative,” she continued.
“I said earlier this week that no matter what happens in South Carolina, I would continue to run for president — I’m a woman of my word,” Haley said to cheers.
At Haley’s campaign watch party Saturday night, her supporters did not seem ready to throw in the towel after, though it was quiet in the room when Trump was declared winner on the TV screen, according to CNN.
“I don’t think it is over,” Nell Parker, a Haley supporter at the event, told the outlet.
Haley has vowed to continue on through Super Tuesday on March 5, and has events scheduled in multiple states leading up to the major contest where 874 delegates will be up for grabs.
Her campaign said it did everything it could to win in South Carolina, but was ultimately unable to break into Trump’s strong base in the state.
Haley’s campaign manager Betsy Ankney told CNN Saturday that the campaign plans to flood Super Tuesday states with money, including a seven-figure ad buy in the target states along with national cable and digital spots.
“Haley has been the underdog in this race the entire time,” she told the outlet. “We know that Trump is a juggernaut. We know that he is strong. We know that he has been the de facto leader of the party for the past eight years. So, breaking that hold is going to take a lot.”
Trump’s South Carolina victory puts him even closer to clinching the GOP nomination.
He grabbed an additional 9 of the 21 delegates awarded by congressional district results by 9 p.m. as votes continued to roll in.
The GOP front-runner has won every primary in the 2024 election cycle so far, outpacing his rivals by double-digit margins in Iowa, New Hampshire, the US Virgin Islands and Nevada.
The Haley campaign long viewed South Carolina as a pivotal point in the race, where the former governor would have the best chances of coming within striking distance of Trump.
Haley’s team stressed she would build on “momentum” from Iowa and New Hampshire, which would materialize in a surge in her home state.
In South Carolina, she ran on a platform highlighting her gubernatorial record and continued to argue that the “chaos” that follows Trump makes him incapable of defeating Biden in November, pointing to polls showing her having larger margins against the Democratic incumbent.
Ankney, told The Post on Friday that Haley was “marching on” past South Carolina, and that Haley’s camp wouldn’t disclose any sort of benchmark they were trying to hit.
“We know that this is an uphill battle. We know that the road is difficult. We know that the math is challenging, but this has never just been about who can win a Republican primary this battle is about who can win in November, defeat the Democrats and finally get our country back on track,” Ankney told reporters before the contest on Friday.
Meanwhile, Trump unleashed a crew of surrogates, including 2024 candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Lara Trump, to stump for him in South Carolina in the week leading up to the primary.
Trump delivered remarks Friday night in Rock Hill, South Carolina to around 6,000 supporters, predicting Haley would have a “very bad day” on Saturday because she’s “not a nice person.”
Backers of the former president, including Trump himself and former 2024 candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) have been vocal about wanting Haley out of the race, arguing she’s hurting the country.
Haley supporters in South Carolina told The Post she should continue her bid, despite very low chances of winning, in case Trump gets “locked up.”
