Former President Donald Trump walked to an easy win in South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday. Polls closed at 7 pm, and the Associated Press called the race shortly thereafter.
“I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now,” Trump said to supporters on Saturday night. “This is really something. This was a little sooner than we anticipated and an even bigger win than we anticipated. And I was just informed that we got double the number of votes that has ever been received in the great state of South Carolina.”
With 7% of the vote counted, Trump was at 59%, to gain 29 more delegates to the Republican Nominating Convention in July. Haley was at 40%.
With 24% of the vote counted, Trump rose to 60% and Haley was at 39%.
With 82% reporting, Trump is at 60.51% and Haley is at 38.85%, at 9:47 p.m. Eastern time.
With 100% reporting, Trump is at 59.79% and Haley is at 39.52%.
Although all registered voters of any party were allowed to vote in the Republican primary, if a voter already cast a ballot in the Feb. 3 South Carolina Democrat primary, he or she would not be eligible to vote in the Republican primary.
Haley has said she will not drop out, even though she has not won a single primary or caucus yet.
Next up in primaries is Michigan on Feb. 27. Then come two caucuses on March 2 in Idaho and Missouri, followed by the District of Columbia primary on March 3, and the North Dakota caucus on March 4.
Michigan has a Democrat primary on Tuesday, and some are sounding the alarm that President Joe Biden may lose the Arab-American vote in that state, as well as the votes from younger registrants.
On March 5, Super Tuesday, 16 states hold Republican primaries or caucuses, including Alaska.
This story will be updated as vote counting continues. Or you can check the South Carolina Election website here.
