Former US President Donald Trump has won against former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley in the South Carolina primary as polls closed in the Palmetto State Saturday night (Feb. 24), despite it being the latter being the state's former governor.
However, as of writing, it was observed that the margin between Trump and Haley was narrower than the Ohio caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
The Associated Press called the race shortly after polls closed, with an AP VoteCast result the news agency conducted with the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago found that Republicans in the state were broadly aligned with Trump's goals, including the scrutiny of the Biden administration's support of Ukraine's fight against Russia, the perceived immigration problem in the US southern border, and the alleged political motives behind Trump's multiple criminal indictments.
It was earlier reported that Haley would continue her campaign until Super Tuesday on March 5.
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Results, Observations of SC Primary
The AP VoteCast exit poll revealed that Trump's South Carolina victory looked remarkably similar to the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, meaning that the regional differences that once existed within the GOP have been supplanted by a national movement that largely revolved around Trump.
Only about half of GOP voters had a favorable view of Haley compared to six or seven out of 10 for Trump.
Most of those favoring Trump considered themselves supporters of the "Make America Great Again" movement, a slogan that helped the business mogul win the White House. On the other hand, Haley's supporters were a 60-40 mix of those who legitimately supported her and those who found her as the GOP alternative for Trump, respectively.
About two-thirds of South Carolina voters who voted for Trump were profiled as white, conservative, and do not have a college degree, a profile similar to that of the former president. They also believed that the 77-year-old was capable enough to keep the country safe and had the mental capacity to return to the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, 52-year-old Haley has bet she could offer a generational change for the GOP, but the future she articulated has little basis in the present-day party, even in her own home state.
The former US ambassador to the UN dominated among roughly three out of every four South Carolina voters who said that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
Within the party, there was also a 60-40 divide between those who thought Biden was not legitimately elected and those who thought he was.
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