It’s all over but the shouting, if the polls are to be believed in South Carolina.
As Palmetto State voters head to the voting booth on Saturday, the opinion polls show former President Donald Trump in the lead and South Carolina former Gov. Nikki Haley trailing far behind in the state she should be able to win.
Haley has already said that if she loses the South Carolina primary, which appears almost certain, she won’t drop from contention. She spent the past few weeks burning through $6 million on ads and traveling from hamlet to town to city in the state she once led, looking for votes. She has spent more money this month than she raised in January, according to her FEC reports.
Trump, however, has not spent much time in the state. Last weekend he stayed at Mar-a-Lago, and had a meeting there with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday — President’s Day.
On Thursday night he was in Nashville, Tenn. talking to a group of religious broadcasters.
“Remember, every communist regime throughout history has tried to stamp out the churches, just like every fascist regime has tried to co-opt them and control them,” Trump told the National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention, in classic Trump style. “And, in America, the radical left is trying to do both.”
On Saturday evening, Trump will be speaking at CPAC, the big conservative gathering in Washington, D.C., which has already thrown its support to him. The speech is highly anticipated among conservative activists, whether they are there in person or watching online.
After South Carolina’s primary comes Michigan, Idaho, and Missouri on March 2, District of Columbia on March 3, and North Dakota on March 4.
Super Tuesday, March 5, is when more than one third of all Republican delegates are up for grabs, with these primaries and caucuses:
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Maine
Massachusetts
Minnesota
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
American Samoa
1,215 delegates needed to win the nomination. Trump has 63 so far, and Haley has 17. The nine delegates pledged to Ron DeSantis will probably go to Trump, since DeSantis dropped out and endorsed him. Same with the three delegates pledged to Vivek Ramaswamy, who has also dropped out and endorsed Trump.
