There weren't many surprises in Saturday's South Carolina Republican primary. Donald Trump received 59.8% of the vote compared to Nikki Haley, who remained at 39.5% and saw what could have been his best chance to thwart the former North American president's favoritism upended.
Trump's victory in Haley's home state, where he served as governor between 2011 and 2017, does not seem to leave many doubts about his path to the Republican Party's nomination for the presidential elections in November. Trump won it all gathering And the contested primaries so far – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the British Virgin Islands – are now only thinking about dueling with Joe Biden.
“I just want to say that I have never seen the Republican Party as united as it is at this moment,” Trump declared, in a speech in which he did not even mention the name of his only rival for the presidential nomination.
Hey The New York Times After Trump's victory in South Carolina, it was decreed that the Republican primaries were no longer an election, but a “coronation.” In less than two months, Trump was recording one victory after another, at the same time as he saw his internal opponents abandon the race, including powerful names such as former Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who many considered the main candidate to defeat the former president. .
“This is the fastest initial process I can remember,” he said. The New York Times Veteran Republican strategist Ron Kaufman, who has followed the primaries since the 1970s, asserted that “there is no one who does not view Trump as a candidate, including Nikki Haley.”
Some Republicans who oppose Trump had hoped that, in a two-way race, Haley could gain an advantage by concentrating anti-Make America Great Again votes. But these calculations turned out to be largely wrong. Even in the Nevada primary, in which Trump did not participate, Haley received fewer votes than the “None of These Candidates” option (Trump ended up winning the election). gatheringRuns alone, takes state delegates.)
And now, after a major defeat in the state where she began to enjoy the advantage of popularity among voters from the beginning, she has dealt the decisive blow to her candidacy.
“Soviet elections”
Haley may seek solace in losing by a smaller-than-expected margin. On the eve of the primaries, opinion polls indicated a clearer difference, about 30 points.
Despite the failures, the former US ambassador to the United Nations promised to continue his election campaign at least until “Super Tuesday,” that is, March 5, when 15 states and one US-administered territory go to vote.
“What I saw today is South Carolina’s frustration with the direction our country is headed,” Haley told supporters in Charleston. “I said at the beginning of the week that no matter what happened in South Carolina, I would stay in the presidential race. “I am a woman of my word.”
Contrary to the advice of some experts who advocate that she abandon the campaign, Haley appears committed to not giving Trump an immediate victory, criticizing those who expect a “Soviet-style election with one candidate.”
His campaign announced that it would make a significant investment in television advertising through Super Tuesday, in the “seven-figure range,” to try to capture as many people dissatisfied with Trump as possible.
The former president's allies would have preferred Haley to admit defeat now and accused her of dividing the party. “The truth is that Haley's campaign has become a… Never Trump “She is the greatest representative of dishonest Joe Biden,” Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Cheung said. He added, “The primary elections end tonight and it is time to move on to the general elections.”
It's been a month since Trump and Haley faced each other head-to-head in the primaries, and although the former president's legal troubles have increased, the reality is that for the majority of Republican voters, this doesn't seem to change their preference in any way. . .
In recent weeks, two court decisions ordered the businessman to pay damages totaling more than $500 million — which Trump plans to appeal — for lying on his assets declarations and in a sexual assault and defamation lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Moreover, during this period, Trump made one of the most shocking statements since entering politics, when he suggested that he could encourage Russia to invade NATO member states that did not spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense.
