Mediaboss Marketing

Note: percentages may update as CBS News collects more data.

Voters in South Carolina weighed in on the 2024 Republican primary Saturday, and just after polls closed at 7 p.m., the election results came in CBS News projected former President Donald Trump defeated Nikki Haley. Here's the latest on the factors that went into voters' decisions how they chose between former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at the ballot box, according to exit polls.

The home-state advantage wasn't there for Haley.

Trump bested Haley among most key demographic groups. He won majorities of both men and women and among all age groups.

Trump ran especially well with the parts of the Republican base that were predominant in the GOP electorate, including conservatives and White evangelicals. More than four in 10 South Carolina GOP primary voters identified themselves as part of the MAGA movement and about nine in 10 of them backed Trump.

Most South Carolina GOP primary voters rejected the charge that Trump is mentally unfit to serve as president, according to early exit polls.

And South Carolina Republican primary voters are also dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country overall and rate the nation's economy negatively, according to early exit polls. In fact, nearly nine in 10 of these voters say they're dissatisfied with how things in the country are going including nearly half who say they are angry about it. This is currently higher than the 36% of New Hampshire primary voters who said they were angry. Eight in 10 say the economy is either not so good or poor.

Haley has questioned Trump's mental fitness for office, but Trump's voters overwhelmingly refute this, and most instead charge that it's Haley who lacks the physical and mental health needed to serve effectively as president. As a result, Trump beats Haley on this measure among Republican primary voters overall in South Carolina.

These early exit polls show a largely conservative electorate, and one that more closely resembles that of the Iowa GOP caucuses than the New Hampshire Republican primary.

This electorate is more conservative than it was in 2016, when Trump won the Republican primary in this state.

Conservative: More than four in 10 of GOP primary voters call themselves "very conservative," higher than the 38% who identified themselves that way in the 2016 primary. In 2016, those who were "somewhat conservative" outnumbered those who were "very conservative." But the reverse is the case in the primary today.

MAGA: Almost half of South Carolina GOP voters identify as "MAGA," in line with Iowa GOP caucusgoers (46%), but higher than what CBS News saw in the New Hampshire primary.

Evangelical: About six in 10 voters are White evangelicals, about three times as many as there were in the New Hampshire Republican primary. And if this holds, it would be higher than the 55% who identified as White evangelical in the Iowa caucuses.

Independents: Only about a quarter of voters call themselves independents, lower than the 44% in New Hampshire. About 4% of today's primary voters identify as Democrats.

Race:As we often see with Republican primary electorates, this electorate is largely White. More than nine in 10 voters are White.

Polls close at 7 p.m.

Primary results in the South Carolina Republican primary will start to come in after the polls close. CBS News will not characterize or project the outcome of the race before the last polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

This is the latest CBS News' estimate of how many delegates have been allocated to Republican candidates, based on the results of the nominating contests to date. Heading into the South Carolina primary, Trump had an estimated 63 delegates, compared to Haley's 17 delegates. South Carolina allocates 50 delegates. Twenty-nine of them are state delegates and the winner will take all of them. Twenty-one are allocated by congressional district three for each of the seven districts, and the winner takes all the delegates in each district.

There are 50 delegates at stake and 29 will be awarded to the winner of the statewide vote. Twenty-one delegates will be allocated according to the vote in each of the state's seven congressional districts. The top vote-getter in each district will get three delegates from that district. The tracker currently includes estimated delegates allocated after the GOP contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

Continue reading here:
South Carolina primary exit polls for the 2024 GOP election: What voters said as they cast their ballots - CBS News

Former President Donald J. Trump easily defeated Nikki Haley in South Carolinas Republican primary on Saturday, delivering a crushing blow in her home state and casting grave doubt on her long-term viability.

Mr. Trumps victory, called by The Associated Press, was widely expected, and offers fresh fodder for his contention that the race is effectively over. Ms. Haley pledged to continue her campaign, but the former president has swept the early states and is barreling toward the nomination even as a majority of delegates have yet to be awarded.

This was a little sooner than we anticipated, he said in Columbia, S.C., minutes after the race was called, adding that he had never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now.

Throughout his victory speech, Mr. Trump made it clear that he was eager to turn his attention to the general election, at one point telling the crowd: I just wish we could do it quicker. Nine months is a long time.

He also did not mention Ms. Haley by name, alluding to her only twice: once to knock her for a disappointing finish in a Nevada primary contest with no practical value, and once for supporting an opponent of his in 2016.

In her election-night speech in Charleston, S.C., Ms. Haley congratulated Mr. Trump on his victory. But she said the results he was beating her by 60 percent to 39 percent as of late Saturday demonstrated that huge numbers of voters were saying they want an alternative.

Mr. Trump, however, won South Carolina in 2016 and has remained popular in the state since, with polls ahead of the primary consistently showing him with double-digit leads.

Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and a United Nations ambassador during Mr. Trumps administration, had hoped to buck the odds, but her loss at the hands of voters who are arguably the most familiar with her politics will fuel further uncertainty about her path forward.

During her speech, Ms. Haley sounded more serious and less upbeat than she had after defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. But she said she planned to stay in the race through Super Tuesday on March 5, arguing that Americans deserved a chance to choose a candidate.

In the next 10 days, another 21 states and territories will speak, she told supporters. They have the right to a real choice. Not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate.

Ms. Haley has staked her campaign on drawing support from independents and more moderate Republicans, particularly in states where primaries are not restricted to voters registered with one party.

But that strategy fell short in New Hampshire last month the early-voting state where she was closest to Mr. Trump in polls and in South Carolina, raising questions about whether it will succeed in Michigan, which holds its primary on Tuesday, and any of the 16 states that vote on Super Tuesday on March 5.

Still, Ms. Haley has insisted she will stay in the race, arguing that she is providing an alternative for voters opposed to Mr. Trump and maintaining that Americans deserve a chance to choose a candidate.

So far, though, Republican voters have shown no sign of turning away from Mr. Trump, even as he faces 91 felony charges in four criminal cases. Mr. Trumps legal problems have been at the forefront of his bid, as he tries to use the unprecedented collision between the campaign trail and courtrooms to rally his base behind him.

Mr. Trumps first criminal trial, on charges connected to a hush-money payment to a porn star in 2016, is scheduled to start on March 25 in New York City, meaning his trial could overlap with dozens of Republican primaries and caucuses.

Whether Ms. Haley will remain in the race by then is an open question. Donors have so far continued to pour money into her bid, giving her the cash to keep going. She will travel to Michigan on Sunday and has planned stops in a number of states before the Super Tuesday contests, when 36 percent of Republican delegates will be up for grabs.

We dont anoint kings in this country, Ms. Haley said on Tuesday. We have elections. And Donald Trump, of all people, should know we dont rig elections.

The Trump campaign has repeatedly signaled its desire to focus on the general election and an anticipated matchup against President Biden, who won South Carolinas Democratic primary early this month.

In a speech earlier on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, Mr. Trump focused entirely on Mr. Biden rather than addressing Ms. Haley, his more immediate opponent.

Mr. Trump and his team have called on Ms. Haley to drop out of the race, pointing to his delegate tally and his lead in polls as proof that she has no mathematical path to the nomination.

Mr. Trumps followers have outnumbered Ms. Haleys at every turn of the contest so far. Even in Nevada, where Ms. Haley was the only candidate in a Republican primary that awarded no delegates, she was outvoted by a None of These Candidates option on the ballot. Ms. Haley did not campaign there and her campaign shrugged off the symbolic defeat, but it generated days of embarrassing headlines.

Over the last month, Trump advisers have taken every opportunity to argue that Ms. Haley has yet to name a state whose primary she thinks she can win. Mr. Trump sought to undercut and humiliate her well ahead of South Carolina.

In New Hampshire, the Trump campaign showcased her relative lack of support at home by bringing a slew of prominent South Carolina Republicans to the state, including Gov. Henry McMaster and Senator Tim Scott, whom Ms. Haley appointed to his position.

Both men appeared regularly at Mr. Trumps South Carolina rallies, with Mr. Scott, a former rival for the Republican nomination, emerging as a key surrogate and a potential running mate. Mr. Trump has also begun to claim that he only tapped Ms. Haley for the United Nations post in his administration in order to clear the way for Mr. McMaster to become governor.

That line is part of an increasingly aggressive barrage of attacks that Mr. Trump has unleashed at Ms. Haley since the Republican field narrowed. After earlier only criticizing Ms. Haleys standing in the polls, he began taking aim at her political views while lobbing personal smears about her temperament, intelligence and marriage.

Ms. Haley, for her part, has also leveled sharp critiques at Mr. Trump, building on her monthslong argument that Republicans need a younger leader who can leave behind the chaos of the Trump era. She has called him unhinged and suggested that he would use the Republican National Committees coffers to pay his mounting legal bills as he fights his criminal indictments.

Her loss in South Carolina marked a striking political transformation for both her and the Republican Party. When Ms. Haley ran for governor in 2010, she was the anti-establishment candidate embraced by grass-roots conservatives aligned with the Tea Party who saw her as an outsider.

But the movement that propelled her success coalesced behind Mr. Trump in 2016, helping him dominate Republican politics and remake the party in his image. Ms. Haley, once seen as being on the partys conservative fringes, now appears to be too moderate for the Republican base.

Jazmine Ulloa contributed reporting.

Read more here:
South Carolina Primary: Trump Defeats Haley, Delivering a Crushing Blow in Her Home State - The New York Times

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a primary election night party at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday. Andrew Harnik/AP hide caption

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a primary election night party at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday.

Former President Donald Trump beat his remaining major challenger, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary Saturday, according to a race call from the Associated Press that came as polls closed statewide.

Even though Trump is projected to win the statewide race, Haley is leading in the counties with the two biggest cities, Columbia and Charleston. Haley, who was elected twice as governor of the state, currently owns a home in Charleston County. As of Saturday night she led in Beaufort County, home to Hilton Head.

Trump has now won every contest where he was on the ballot. His win in South Carolina is not exactly a surprise, though. Trump was leading in the polls in Haley's conservative home state throughout the entire race. The AP says that it based its early race call on an analysis of a survey of primary voters that confirmed the findings of the pre-Election Day polling showing Trump far outpacing Haley statewide.

"This is an early evening and a fantastic evening," Trump told a crowd of supporters in South Carolina. "This was a little sooner than we expected ... an even bigger win than we anticipated."

Haley told supporters that voters in many states will be weighing in during primary elections in the next few weeks and she will remain in the race until then.

"They have the right to a real choice, not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate," she said. "And I have a duty to give them that choice."

Haley congratulated Trump on his win during an event in South Carolina Saturday evening.

"No matter the results, I love the people of our state," she told her supporters.

Haley doubled down on comments made earlier this week that she would stay in the race no matter the results tonight. Her campaign is launching a "seven-figure" national ad buy ahead of Super Tuesday on March 5.

"There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative," she said. "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. I'm not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden."

Trump has maintained a commanding lead in the party's presidential race despite facing a combined 91 state and federal charges. Many of those charges are related to his efforts to stay in office after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.

Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (L) helps her mother Raj Kaur Randhawa (R) cast her ballot in the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday in Kiawah Island, S.C. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (L) helps her mother Raj Kaur Randhawa (R) cast her ballot in the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday in Kiawah Island, S.C.

Biden won the state's Democratic primary earlier this month with 96% of the vote.

The loss is a major blow to Haley's bid for the Republican nomination. Despite the significant money and time spent by the campaign in South Carolina, she was unable to garner enough support including from leaders in the party. Trump remains very popular in the South and among more conservative voters in the U.S.

So far, Haley has been doing best among voters who are more moderate, as well as Republican voters who are open to an alternative to Trump. In New Hampshire, which has a large share of independent voters, Haley got 43% of the vote. Trump won the primary, though, with 54% of the vote.

Lynda Higgins, an independent voter in South Carolina, said she voted for Haley in the GOP primary because she liked the job she did as governor.

"I just like the way she managed the state. She did very well when we had hurricanes, disasters, things like that," she told NPR. "I like the way she's handled the state."

And while Higgins said she voted for Trump in the last two elections, she said she'd like to vote for someone else in the upcoming general election.

"I just think that it has become too much of a hot point in this country with there's just too much division," she said. "And I think he heads that."

Republicans say the party has changed a lot in the state since Haley was governor there just a decade ago. Matt Moore, who previously served as the chairman of South Carolina's state Republican Party, told NPR's Don Gonyea that the GOP there is "a much different party than when Nikki Haley was governor."

"I would say that Nikki Haley is highly respected, first and foremost, but I do think people see a president differently than they see a governor or a member of a cabinet," he said. "She has run a very good textbook campaign. But the reality is that Trump has been the de facto incumbent of the party, and there's hardly anything anyone can do about it."

Fifty delegates are up for grabs in today's election. Twenty-nine of those delegates are awarded to the winner of the statewide vote. The other 21 delegates are divvied up according to who wins each of the state's seven congressional districts. Those are also awarded winner take all. The winner of each district is awarded three delegates per district.

During his speech to supporters Saturday evening, Trump also looked ahead at upcoming contests including Michigan's primary this coming Tuesday.

"Michigan is coming up and we are doing great," he said. "The autoworkers are going to be with us 100 percent."

But Trump said he's also expecting to sweep contests on Super Tuesday. He said polls show him winning in all the state's holding elections on March 5.

"I have never seen the Republican party so unified as it is right now," he said. "I have won every election by a record ... [but] we have a lot of work ahead of us."

Read the original post:
Trump wins South Carolina's GOP primary as Haley vows to stay in the race - NPR

No vote estimates available.

Map is colored by the candidate who leads in each precinct. Lightly shaded areas are more sparsely populated. Some precincts may only be reporting partial results.

Precincts are reporting results from the South Carolina Republican primary. These are the most detailed votes available for this race.

The map above shows the leading candidate in each precinct. It is shaded according to the number of votes per square mile for that candidate, meaning sparsely populated areas where fewer primary voters live are lighter, and denser areas are darker.

Heres another way to look at the results. In the maps below, precincts are shaded according to each candidates vote share for former President Donald J. Trump and Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor.

Most precincts have now reported all vote types early, absentee and votes cast on Election Day.

This table shows the leading candidate in precincts that have reported all vote types, based on the demographics of those areas.

Lower income areas

Higher income areas

Areas with fewer college graduates

Areas with more college graduates

Rural areas

Suburban areas

Urban areas

Strong Biden areas in 2020

Note: Margins may not match candidate percentages because of rounding.

Mr. Trumps strength cuts across many different kinds of areas. His lead is most pronounced in lower-income areas and areas with fewer college-educated voters.

Vote share for Trump in precincts as of 10:54 p.m. Eastern

Each dot in the charts below represents one neighborhoods precinct. The dots are positioned on the charts based on the percentage of the vote each candidate received in that precinct.

Precincts in

Trump

Empty chart, waiting for data

Haley

Empty chart, waiting for data

Trump

Empty chart, waiting for data

Haley

Empty chart, waiting for data

The margin is tighter in the states higher-income areas, as Ms. Haley leads Mr. Trump in a number of these places, including Hilton Head Island, a popular destination for wealthy retirees where she held a rally earlier this week.

Precincts in

Trump

Empty chart, waiting for data

Haley

Empty chart, waiting for data

Trump

Empty chart, waiting for data

Haley

Empty chart, waiting for data

Mr. Trump is now more than 50 percentage points ahead in areas with fewer college graduates. In areas with more college graduates, Ms. Haley is winning, though her lead is substantially less.

Precincts in

Trump

Empty chart, waiting for data

Haley

Empty chart, waiting for data

Trump

Empty chart, waiting for data

Haley

Empty chart, waiting for data

Trump

Empty chart, waiting for data

Haley

Empty chart, waiting for data

Rural areas have consistently been pockets of strength for Mr. Trump. He has also won the vote in many suburban precincts, though Ms. Haley leads in cities like Charleston and Columbia and many of their surrounding suburbs.

Trump

Empty chart, waiting for data

Haley

Empty chart, waiting for data

Areas that President Biden won in 2020 are nearly evenly divided between Mr. Trump and Ms. Haley.

Methodology

Higher income areas are precincts where the median household income is $78,000 or more; lower income areas are where the median household income is $40,000 or less. Areas with more college graduates are precincts where more than 40 percent of the population has a college education; areas with fewer college graduates are precincts where less than 15 percent of the population graduated college. The classification of areas as urban, rural or suburban is derived from research by Jed Kolko. Strong Biden areas are precincts where President Biden received more than 50 percent of the two-party vote in the 2020 presidential election.

Election results are from The Associated Press and the South Carolina Election Commission. The Times publishes its own estimates for the number of remaining votes, based on historic turnout data and reporting from results providers. These are only estimates, and they may not be informed by reports from election officials.

See The Timess South Carolina precinct result map of the 2020 Democratic primary.

Read more here:
South Carolina Precinct Map: Detailed Results From the G.O.P. Primary - The New York Times

The results are in for the South Carolina Republican primary election.The Palmetto State went for former President Donald Trump. But in our area, in Beaufort County, voters went for Nikki Haley.WJCL caught up with Republican political strategist and Hilton Head resident Matt Wylie, who says hes not surprised by these results.Probably the biggest thing is that Nikki Haley has deep ties, deep roots right here in this area. Shes always going to be strong in the first district," Wylie said. Haley says shes not throwing in the towel yet.And Wylie says he thinks she should stay in the race as many states have yet to cast their ballots, and its good for voters to have choices.She needs to make the case on why her and why not Donald Trump. Elections are about choices. And up until South Carolina, I didnt feel like Nikki Haley or any of the other candidates were offering these choices to voters. And I think she finally did. Shes been making a strong case. I dont know if it will be enough to get her any more delegates than what she has or if shes going to be able to survive. But I think as long as she continues to make this strong case, she has a reason to stay in this race," Wylie said. Voters in both Charleston and Richland counties also went for Haley.

The results are in for the South Carolina Republican primary election.

The Palmetto State went for former President Donald Trump.

But in our area, in Beaufort County, voters went for Nikki Haley.

WJCL caught up with Republican political strategist and Hilton Head resident Matt Wylie, who says hes not surprised by these results.

Probably the biggest thing is that Nikki Haley has deep ties, deep roots right here in this area. Shes always going to be strong in the first district," Wylie said.

Haley says shes not throwing in the towel yet.

And Wylie says he thinks she should stay in the race as many states have yet to cast their ballots, and its good for voters to have choices.

She needs to make the case on why her and why not Donald Trump. Elections are about choices. And up until South Carolina, I didnt feel like Nikki Haley or any of the other candidates were offering these choices to voters. And I think she finally did. Shes been making a strong case. I dont know if it will be enough to get her any more delegates than what she has or if shes going to be able to survive. But I think as long as she continues to make this strong case, she has a reason to stay in this race," Wylie said.

Voters in both Charleston and Richland counties also went for Haley.

See the original post:
Republican political strategist reacts to South Carolina Republican primary election results - WJCL News Savannah