Update 7:16 p.m.: Decision Desk HQ has called the South Carolina primary for Donald Trump. The former president leads Haley in her home state at publishing time, 56.4% to 43% with 20% reporting.
Original story:
The focus of the 2024 Republican primary moves to the Palmetto State this weekend with the South Carolina GOP primary. Unlike the Democrats who pushed their South Carolina primary as a quid pro quo to the state’s black supporters, the Republicans were content to keep the original primary date on the calendar.
The RealClearPolitics polling average has Donald Trump with a 25.3-point edge over Nikki Haley. No recent poll has had the former president with a lead of less than 15 points. Trump is poised to trounce Haley on her home turf — in the state where she served as a successful and popular governor.
Haley has vowed to stay in the race no matter what happens in South Carolina. The biggest topic of conversation is why she is still in the race. My gut tells me that it’s a combination of stubbornness and a hope against hope that she will be the last (wo)man standing if Trump’s legal troubles end up in a worst-case scenario.
Related: Should She Stay or Should She Go? A New Poll Reveals What Voters Think About Nikki Haley.
“Nikki Haley knows her campaign is over. It was over a month ago, but she refuses to publicly admit it,” PJ Media’s Matt Margolis wrote this week. “With each devastating loss, she speaks triumphantly, as if she’s won, pretending that Republican primary voters are sending her the message that she must soldier on.”
Matt cited a recent interview Donald Trump gave where he theorized on why Haley’s sticking with it.
“I don’t think she knows how to get out, actually. I really don’t,” Trump said. “Well, they’re trying to hurt me because of the general election, so the Democrats are giving her money, and she’s playing into the game, and I think she just can’t get — she just can’t get herself to get out. She’s doing poorly in the polls. Look, if she was doing well, I don’t understand it. But she’s doing very poorly.”
Trump may have a point. But someone else has a point, too, and he didn’t hold back.
PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser wrote in a piece for our VIPs, “What Nikki Haley has been doing for the last few months is far more toxic for the GOP than anything Donald Trump has ever done. I can’t wait until she’s shuffled off to Trump Hater Island, where she can wallow in a cesspool of leftist media colleagues who, deep down, she knows really don’t like her.”
Look, I used to really like Nikki Haley. She mostly did a terrific job as governor of South Carolina, and I had high hopes when she began her presidential campaign. But now she’s trying to draw attention to herself for all the wrong reasons (apologies to the Bellamy Brothers) and in all the wrong ways.
Now it’s time to see how she does in her home state’s primary. Thanks to our friends at DecisionDeskHQ, you can check on the latest results below, and you can always count on us to report on the primary and its aftermath.