The state has 34 Republican delegates.
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Super Tuesday on March 1 marks the third test for the United States’ presidential hopefuls.
The Republican candidates continue to push hard for votes across SC, especially in Beaufort County. Ted Cruz has aired a radio ad and robocall criticizing Donald Trump and Gov. Nikki Haley (R) for supporting the removal of the Confederate flag from a memorial near the SC capitol.
On the Democratic side, Nevada’s caucuses don’t get underway until 2 p.m. Eastern time. But because the state’s a caucus and not a primary, those polls aren’t very reliable.
But Trump isn’t in the middle of the pack, ready to inch out a victory in SC. “Ted Cruz for president”.
For Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Ben Carson who trail at the bottom of the polls, SC will be a fight just to stay in the race.
“Boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number”, said Trump.
The spat may have helped Trump, given the lack of Roman Catholics in SC – 7% according to the beliefnet website. It has a mixture of conservative and evangelical voters, particularly in the northwest of the state, and an influential bloc of retired military veterans who hanker for a tough message on national security, with more moderate Republicans on the Atlantic coast where cities have swelled with migrants from northern states. Trump has a double digit lead but Cruz has been seeing a surge nationally. “This race is going to be decided friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor, pastor to pastor, South Carolinian to South Carolinian”. In that case, the eventual nominee, Mitt Romney, placed second.
BRUCE HAYNES: The Trump campaign right now feels like a joy ride.
Just 42 percent consider Trump likable and 32 percent consider him compassionate. Democrats will gather at 200 caucus sites across the state, including six at Las Vegas Strip casinos so housekeepers, blackjack dealers and others with weekend schedules can attend.
Nevadans backed Clinton over Barack Obama in 2008 on his way to the presidency. “As the undisputed Republican front-runner, Trump was a popular target in the final-hours” scramble for votes.
Unlike in Iowa, caucuses are not a part of the political fabric of Nevada. He had 50.1 percent of the votes with Newt Gingrich coming in a distant second at 21.1 percent.
The billionaire is viewed as a possible general election victor by 86 percent of Republican voters, giving him a 15 percentage point advantage over his nearest rival. They are not, however, not alone in the efforts to win the Palmetto State. That’s the smallest difference between favorable and unfavorable opinions of any of the remaining candidates in the Republican field.
In the meantime, the Democratic South Carolina primary, which will be held the following Saturday on February 27, looks like a lock for Hillary Clinton. While Cruz wanted to be on offense, his campaign faced new questions about a website it created this week attacking Rubio’s record. The AP-GfK poll found Trump and Jeb Bush are almost tied as the candidates with the highest unfavorable ratings within their own party, with only 4 in 10 GOP voters seeing Trump in a positive light.
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The ever-present calculus of how a candidate performs against expectations may hang most heavily over Bush.
