- Nikki Haley will make stops in Charlotte and Raleigh this weekend ahead of Super Tuesday.
In South Carolina’s Saturday Republican presidential primary, 60% of voters choose former President Donald Trump as their nominee for the 2024 presidential race. Just over 39% of voters chose the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, as the nominee. The vote comes as North Carolina voters prep for the March 5 primary and as Trump plans a visit to Greensboro this weekend.
While North Carolina has a semi-closed primary, meaning that unaffiliated voters can vote in either party’s primary race, South Carolina has an open primary. There, voters can vote in any one party’s primary regardless of their party registration.
Haley’s support was centered around the state capital of Columbia and the tourism hub of Charleston. In Columbia, Haley had 58% of the vote to Trump’s 41%. In Charleston, Haley had 62% of Republicans’ support with Trump at 38%. A bit further south in Beaufort County, Hayley found a pocket of victory claiming 55% of the vote there.
Still, Trump walks away from the SC primary with an overall commanding win in Haley’s home state. Haley says she will remain in the race despite the losses in South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire. She is scheduled to rally in Charlotte and Raleigh this weekend ahead of the state’s primary.
Trump is slated to be in North Carolina this weekend as well in a Greensboro rally. North Carolina’s primary is on Super Tuesday, as 15 other states and territories all hold their primaries on the same day. In 2020, North Carolina saw a 65% voter turnout for the presidential primary.
mcdaniel to step down
The South Carolina results mark the week that Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel had previously announced she would leave her post. On Monday, she announced that she will step down on March 8 to make way for Trump’s endorsed leader, NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley. Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, a North Carolina native, will serve as co-chair, and Trump campaign leader Chris LaCivita will be the RNC’s COO.
border security amid outrage over uga student death
On Thursday, Trump and President Joe Biden are both scheduled to visit the southern border with Mexico. Trump will be using the visit to drive home his now-eight-year campaign to stop illegal immigration. President Biden, the Democrat’s only option in the 2024 presidential race, is also scheduled to visit the border on Thursday to meet with US Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas.
“He will discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades,” a press statement from the White House read.
The visit comes as the University of Georgia community mourns the murder of a local nursing student, Laken Riley, who was allegedly murdered by suspect Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented migrant from Venezuela. Riley had been jogging on campus but was found dead of blunt force trauma on Thursday morning.
The US Senate’s bill, endorsed by the president, has faced backlash because it would also green light billions in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Critics argue the legislation does more harm than good: codifying catch-and-release, offering expansive work visas for illegal immigrants, and only feigning improved border enforcement. North Carolina’s Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd have said they will not support it.