©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a Fox News town hall with Laura Ingraham in Greenville, South Carolina, U.S., February 20, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Wolfe/File Photo
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By Alexandra Ulmer and Joseph Axe
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Reuters) – Donald Trump is looking to cement his status as the GOP’s viable presidential candidate in Saturday’s contest in South Carolina, with the only remaining challenger, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley , hopes a better-than-expected performance in his home state supports his campaign in the long run.
Trump is overwhelmingly favored to win the primary election in the southern US state, the fifth Republican nomination vote in a campaign the former president dominated from the start despite facing dozens of criminal charges.
He won the first four races in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands, eliminating the rest of the initially large Republican field along the way.
Opinion polls show Trump holding an average statewide lead of 30 percentage points, according to poll tracking site 538. The Republican nominee will face Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Haley, a South Carolina native and governor from 2011 to 2017, rejected suggestions this week that a defeat at home would push her to end her bid for the White House, even though she has no clear path to the nomination.
“We don’t anoint kings in this country,” she said during a campaign appearance in Greenville, South Carolina on Tuesday, adding that she was “not going anywhere” regardless of the outcome of the primary.
He promised to move on to Super Tuesday in early March, when 15 states and one U.S. territory, including Texas, Virginia and North Carolina, will vote, awarding about a third of the delegates to the Republican National Convention in July, who will choose the candidate. .
But a lopsided victory for Trump, 77, on Saturday would only increase pressure on Haley, 52, to leave office so the former president can turn his attention to campaigning against Biden. The president is already treating Trump like the Republican candidate and portraying him as a mortal threat to the republic.
Polls will be open Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET (12 p.m. to 12 a.m. GMT).
South Carolina’s primary is “open,” allowing any registered voter to participate, which could give Haley a boost if independents and Democrats — who tend to favor her over Trump — show up in force.
In contrast to the early stages of the campaign, Haley harshly attacked Trump ahead of Saturday’s vote, warning Republican voters that a third consecutive Trump nomination would end in defeat.
Haley, whose foreign policy credentials are central to her campaign, has focused in recent days on Trump’s stance on Russia following the death of Alexei Navalny, the main local opposition leader.
He criticized Trump for waiting days before commenting on Navalny’s death and then for not blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also condemned Trump’s recent remarks that he would not defend NATO allies from a Russian attack if he felt they were not spending enough on defense.
Trump has questioned Haley’s intelligence, dubbing her “bird brain,” and frequently reminds voters that the state’s top Republicans, including Gov. Henry McMaster, have backed her campaign.
“You shouldn’t lose your home state,” Trump said at a Fox News town hall this week.
Born in New York, Trump lost the state but won the general election in 2016. He moved his permanent residence to Florida in 2019.
With a huge lead in national opinion polls, Trump could actually clinch the nomination by mid-March if he wins the primary at the same rate — just in time for his first criminal trial, which is scheduled to begin March 25 in New York City.
In that case he is accused of falsifying corporate documents to hide secret payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.