The Palmetto State also claimed the first casualty of the night: after a distant fourth place finish, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended his campaign.
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But there were other points in exit polling data that pointed to other candidates, the report noted.
I’m not a highly paid campaign operative, but to me that sounds like a recipe for a Trump victory. It’s tough, its nasty, its mean, its vicious, it’s lovely.
On Thursday, Noble referred to Trump’s campaign slogan when he tweeted, “Let’s be honest – only the church can make America great again!!!”
In the meantime poll has given hope to Donald Trump’s opponents about their chances in this crucial state. Ted Cruz’s 23%. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio appears to have edged out Texas Sen. The poll, which was overseen by Woodard and fellow professor Bruce Ransom, indicated that Cruz was in second place, followed by Rubio, Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Both candidates were staying confident.
“Obviously we didn’t do as well in New Hampshire as we wanted to and we were disappointed about that, but I think that we came into SC working hard, had a good debate, and has really felt like the momentum for us is back”, Rubio explained, citing larger crowds of enthusiastic supporters.
Allison Reilly, 18, drove home 150 miles from Coastal Carolina University to her parents’ house in Columbia to cast the first ballot of her life – for Marco Rubio.
Senior Cruz aides maintained the Texas senator remains “well-positioned” going into looming Southern state primaries, since he won Iowa and placed third in New Hampshire. And this time around, it’s not just Trump who’s throwing punches – although to be fair he did have a pretty glorious week of news-making, calling out George W. Bush and blaming him for 9/11, then weirdly duking it out with Pope Francis.
The GOP race heads next to Nevada and after that to Super Tuesday, representing a delegate gold mine. As the victor, Trump would get the lion’s share.
Late mudslinging between the candidates may have impacted the tight contest too. Almost half said they prefer someone who has experience in politics and about the same numbers would rather see someone from outside the political establishment.
South Carolina GOP chairman Matt Moore told CNN that anywhere between 650,000 and 700,000 voters will take to the polls, an all-time record.
But of the three other candidates, only Kasich has made it onto the leaderboard in the three opening contests. Bush retained only 58 percent of his voters from last week.
“Governor Bush brought honor and dignity to this race”, Cruz said.
“The presidency is bigger than any one person”.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is questioning whether President Barack Obama would have attended Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral Mass “if it were held in a mosque”.
Nearly all the Republicans spent months building complex campaigns and blanketing airwaves in SC, which heralds the start of the GOP campaign’s foray into the South. He is looking toward more moderate states that vote later in March.
Meanwhile, Nevada is also getting ready for its caucuses as the Democrats try to win the state through rallies.
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About three-quarters of Republican primary voters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not US citizens from entering the United States.
