Marco Rubio remain locked in a battle for second place. Ted Cruz with front-runner Donald Trump’s numbers falling.
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Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump moved one step closer to the party’s nomination Saturday with a win in the SC primary.
“I don’t think there’s anything personal about it from Jeb’s side”, said Jim Dyke, Bush’s campaign chief in SC. If there is another Iowa caucus-style draw, the victor will not be chosen with a coin toss, but rather appropriately with a card draw (highest card wins, spades trump diamonds, FYI). Seems the Pope isn’t so fond of the proposed border wall Trump would like to build between the US and Mexico.
In an interview with Breitbart News, Rubio declined to predict victory in any upcoming primaries, but signaled optimism that more Republicans would coalesce behind his campaign.
By all accounts Rubio has had a great 10 days in S.C. following his fifth-place finish in N.H.: His CBS News debate performance was widely praised, and he managed to wrest popular Gov. Nikki Haley’s endorsement from rival Bush.
A less-than-third-place finish for Bush, who has deep family ties in the state and campaigned alongside his mother, the former first lady, and his brother, former President George W. Bush, would raise serious new questions about his campaign and increase pressure on him to drop out.
Check back with this continuing story.
But the results belied Mr. Cruz’s optimism, with Mr. Trump not only winning the overall vote, but also claiming nearly all of the delegates up for grabs to this summer’s nominating convention.
A Donald Trump victory could foreshadow strong showings in Southern states that vote on March 1 – when he could pile up the delegates that determine the nominee. Cruz and Trump both fare well among the voters who feel “betrayed” by their party, and Trump wins 42% of the voters who say they are angry at the federal government.
Ted Cruz has taken time away from campaigning in SC to attend the funeral Mass in Washington for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
His supporters booed when he congratulated competitors Cruz and Rubio for running a tough race.
SC was the death knell for Bush. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll indicated that his lead over Cruz in the state had shrunk to 5 percentage points.
Following the results of the primary, Jeb Bush announced he was suspending his campaign.
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Then, next week the parties swap states, with the Republicans in Nevada Tuesday, and the Democrats in South Carolina Saturday. Her vote for Rubio was no surprise after she endorsed the USA senator from Florida earlier this week. Also in the mix is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has low expectations in SC and is hinging his White House bid on more moderate states that vote later in March, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has a small but loyal cadre of followers.
