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Trump wins in South Carolina GOP primary; Rubio leads Cruz in battle for second place Trump wins South Carolina; Bush drops out of GOP race
(35 minutes later)
COLUMBIA, S.C. —Donald Trump won the South Carolina primary on Saturday night, sustaining his position as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. COLUMBIA, S.C. — Donald Trump commandingly won the South Carolina primary on Saturday night, solidifying his position as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination while Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida were in a dead heat for second and bolstered their status as the two leading alternatives.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida appeared to have very narrowly defeated Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for second place. The voters also delivered a devastating verdict to former Florida governor Jeb Bush, scion of a political dynasty who announced he was suspending his campaign after dismal results here. Bush came in a distant fourth — not even eclipsing 10 percent — after he and his family made an impassioned last stand in South Carolina and his allied super PAC spent millions of dollars on advertising.
Voters delivered a devastating verdict to former Florida governor Jeb Bush, scion of a political dynasty with deep roots in this state. Bush came in well behind the top three, not even passing 10 percent after he and his family made an impassioned last stand in South Carolina and his allied super PAC spent millions of dollars on advertising. “The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision,” Bush told a Columbia ballroom of teary-eyed and stunned supporters.
Bush announced he would suspend his campaign in remarks to supporters Saturday night, calling on Republican voters to nominate “someone who will serve with honor and with decency.” Bunched together about 10 points behind Trump were Cruz and Rubio, both Cuban American first-term senators jockeying to emerge as the top rival to the billionaire mogul.
Speaking to his supporters moments after Bush dropped out of the race, Trump mocked political pundits who have predicted that a winnowed field could prove fatal to his candidacy. Cruz, a Texas maverick who has pitched his faith-infused candidacy as the most ideologically pure conservative, lost evangelical voters to Trump and failed overall to finish even a decisive second, revealing a potential vulnerability as the contest hurtles toward big March primaries across the South.
“They don’t understand: As people drop out, I’m going to get a lot of those votes also,” he said. “You don’t just add them together.” Rubio rebounded from his New Hampshire stumble to unite South Carolina’s new-guard Republican leaders and rally mainstream voters. He moved immediately Saturday night to fuse the party’s establishment forces behind his candidacy. “This has become a three-person race,” Rubio said, “and we will win the nomination.”
Trump congratulated Cruz and Rubio on their showings; he did not mention Bush, whom he relentlessly mocked on the campaign trail as “low-energy.” [South Carolina primary election results]
In his remarks, Trump did not show any sign of engaging in the high-minded campaign Bush discussed: “There’s nothing easy about running for president, I can tell you. It’s tough, it’s nasty, it’s mean, it’s vicious, it’s beautiful.” But the gulf in vote share between Rubio and Trump highlighted the possible limits of the senator’s uplifting message about generational change amid profound GOP unrest.
Trump prevailed after a rocky week on the campaign trail by tapping into the frustrations and anxieties of voters here with his red-hot rhetoric about combating terrorism and ending illegal immigration, brushing aside what appeared to be a condemnation from Pope Francis. Trump overcame a tumultuous week in which he tangled with Pope Francis by tapping into the frustrations and economic anxieties of voters here with his red-hot rhetoric about combating terrorism and ending illegal immigration.
[Live updates: S.C. GOP primary and Nevada Democratic caucuses] In his victory speech, Trump reveled in electoral validation for what he described as “an incredible movement with incredible people.”
Rubio gave triumphant remarks at around 9:15 p.m., when returns gave him a roughly 3,500 vote lead over Cruz -- who has staked his candidacy on a strong showing in southern states. “When you win, it’s beautiful, and we are going to start winning for our country because our country doesn’t win anymore,” Trump said, vowing to continue his victories from coast to coast. He congratulated Rubio and Cruz for “a really good job” but did not address Bush’s departure from the race.
“After tonight, this has become a three-person race, and we will win the nomination,” Rubio said. Cruz asserted in his remarks to supporters Saturday night that his candidacy has put “the Washington cartel in full terror.” He said his was the only campaign that can defeat Trump.
Falling roughly 900 votes behind Rubio with over 97 percent of precincts reporting, Cruz told supporters “we are effectively tied for second place” and said his campaign was again “defying expectations.” “If you are a conservative, this is where you belong because only one strong conservative is in a position to win this race,” Cruz said.
But expectations were that Cruz, who has focused much of his messaging and turnout machine on evangelical voters, would do better among that group than the 27 percent he won, according to preliminary exit polls. Trump outperformed Cruz in that key group, and non-evangelical Christians who did not vote for Trump broke instead for Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The voters’ preferences on character traits brought the race’s emerging fault lines into sharp relief. Cruz won among voters who said their most important quality was shared values; Rubio won among those who prioritized electability; Trump won among those who most valued change or a candidate who “tells it like it is,” according to preliminary network exit poll data.
Only South Carolina’s Republicans voted Saturday; Democrats will vote Feb. 27. Earlier Saturday, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton narrowly defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic caucus vote in Nevada, a victory that boosts her going into the South Carolina primary next week. Trump’s victory signaled a striking shift for the Republican Party. In a heavily military state, Trump disavowed the party’s interventionist posture by condemning the 2003 Iraq invasion and accusing former president George W. Bush of lying about weapons of mass destruction there.
[Clinton defeats Sanders in Nevada] [For Cruz and Rubio, the moment has arrived: A three-man race with Trump]
According to Edison Media Research, the estimated turnout in South Carolina was about 20 percent of all eligible voters in the state. That roughly ties the record of 19.9 percent in 2000 and is higher than 17.6 percent in 2012 and 13.8 percent in 2008, according to the U.S. Elections Project. Trump’s South Carolina win, coupled with his decisive victory in the New Hampshire primary, set up the celebrity businessman as the favorite heading into Tuesday’s Nevada caucuses and the 11 states holding Super Tuesday primaries or caucuses on March 1.
South Carolina’s primary has a history of identifying the eventual nominee and often embracing the establishment’s choice of candidates. The pattern was broken four years ago when former House speaker Newt Gingrich handily defeated Mitt Romney, the eventual nominee. Since 1980, every Republican who has won both the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries has gone on to secure the nomination.
Establishment Republicans have yet to fully coalesce around an alternative to Trump, although Rubio, who stumbled in New Hampshire, hopes to rebound in Saturday’s balloting in South Carolina and cement himself in that role. Still, Saturday’s results indicate that the once-chaotic race could soon be reordered as a three-way contest at the top, representing a fresh threat to Trump’s months-long dominance in the polls with pluralities but not outright majorities.
Regardless of how sweeping Trump’s victory is, he will likely jump well ahead of his rivals in the race for convention delegates. South Carolina’s 50 delegates are awarded on a modified winner-take-all basis. By winning the state, he wins 29 delegates, with the rest awarded based on the individual winners in South Carolina’s seven congressional districts. In his concession speech, Bush hinted at the fighting still to come.
Going into Saturday’s primary, Cruz had 11 delegates, Rubio had 10, and Trump had 17. More than 1,200 delegates are needed to secure the nomination, with more than 600 delegates at stake in the March 1 primaries and caucuses. “I congratulate my competitors that are remaining on the island on their success for a race that has been hard fought, just as the contest for the presidency should be,” Bush said.
Exit polling found that more than seven in 10 South Carolina voters Saturday identified themselves as a born-again or evangelical Christian -- a group that has been a key source of support for Cruz, and one that helped power Gingrich’s win in the state four years ago. But the exit polls found that Trump narrowly edged Cruz among evangelical voters, while leading by a double-digit margin among non-evangelical voters. Ohio Gov. John Kasich did not replicate the magic of his second-place showing in New Hampshire and finished an anemic fifth in South Carolina. He vowed to soldier on with an optimistic message into the New England and Midwestern states coming up on the calendar.
A vast majority of voters -- roughly eight in 10 -- consider themselves conservative, according to preliminary, up from 68 percent who said the same in the 2012 South Carolina Republican contest. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, whose early momentum has been sapped, still nurtured enough of a grass-roots following here to round out the field in mid-single digits. He pledged to continue his campaign.
Significant numbers of voters accused Trump and Cruz of running unfair campaigns, and about four in 10 voters said they had made their decision in just the past few days. Roughly 60 percent of those late-deciding voters picked Cruz or Rubio; less than one-fifth chose Trump. [Trump to supporters: ‘Let’s put this thing away’]
In Greenville, S.C., Stephanie Thorn went into a small room early Saturday at the West End Community Center to cast her ballot for Rubio while her husband waited outside with their young son. She said she likes Rubio’s conservative values and believes he’s the candidate best suited to carry the GOP to victory in November. South Carolina’s electorate is representative of the Republican base, which has made the state a traditional harbinger of determining the eventual nominee. The state’s Republican voters are socially conservative, but there are deep pockets of business-friendly, establishment voters, especially in the fast-growing coastal areas.
“I think he has just a really good chance of winning because he’s very well liked, especially with the Hispanic community,” Thorn, 30, said, calling Cruz and Trump “too divisive” to prevail in a general election. “He just seems like a really good guy.” Republicans here also have a record of rewarding pugnacity; Newt Gingrich carried South Carolina over Mitt Romney in 2012 after two electric, brawling debate performances.
Her husband, Coben, 30, also voted Saturday but cast his vote for Cruz. Interest in the Republican primary was high and a record 735,000 people voted, roughlymatching the record turnout rate set in 2000.
“I thought he had the best chance to beat Trump in this state. I’m not as socially conservative as he is, but I like his tax plan,” he said. Roughly 8 in 10 voters considered themselves conservative, up from 68 percent who said the same in the GOP primary four years ago, and they gave substantial support to both Trump and Cruz, according to preliminary network exit poll results. Among those who said they were “very conservative,” Cruz lead Trump.
They both cited Trump’s dominance in the campaign thus far as reasons for casting their ballots for his opponents. More than 7 in 10 voters considered themselves born-again or evangelical Christians, while roughly three-quarters of the primary electorate said they wanted a candidate who shares their religious beliefs, a significant increase from 2012, the data show.
“I get why people like him. He says how things are a lot of times, but I feel like he’s too much of a loose cannon,” Stephanie said. “I feel like if you put nuclear codes in a guy’s hands like that and he was having a bad day, or — I don’t know, I feel like he could mess up relations with a lot of people.” In the Iowa caucuses, Cruz’s victory was fueled by a double-digit edge among evangelicals over Trump, but in South Carolina the two candidates had roughly the same share, according to the exit polls.
Trump has tapped anti-immigration sentiment, in particular, and has drawn energy from working-class white voters, putting establishment candidates on the defensive in a state where they have traditionally done well. Asked which qualities were important, 37 percent of voters said they were seeking a candidate who shares their values, while 31 percent said they were looking for someone to bring change, according to the poll data.
“There is a shift in the establishment and thinking of Republicans in South Carolina from mainstream, center-right Republicans to angry, hard-right Republicans,” said Kaeton Dawson, a former South Carolina Republican Party chairman who is not aligned with any candidate. “It’s a monumental shift against the pillars of our society: our government and our elected officials.” The vast majority of Republican primary voters said they were at least dissatisfied with the federal government, the data show, and Trump won among those who said they were “angry.”
No establishment candidate was more threatened than Jeb Bush, once the nominal front-runner for the GOP nomination. As in the earlier contests, Trump performed better here with men than with women. In an apparent effort to soften his image, he yielded the lectern during his victory speech to his wife, Melania, and then his elder daughter, Ivanka, who both gave glowing testimonials.
In brief remarks Saturday night, Bush acknowledged that “the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken” but said he hoped the candidate “left on the island” would pursue a more high-minded course through campaign. [Nearly $100 million in super PAC money couldn’t save Jeb Bush]
“Despite what you may have heard,” he said, “ideas matter, policy matters.” For Bush, in contrast, South Carolina represented a swan song. Following a fourth-place finish in New Hampshire, which gave him hope of a comeback, Bush failed to generate widespread enthusiasm here in spite of efforts to revive Bush family nostalgia with high-profile visits by his former-president brother, as well as his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush. While the former president’s rally drew an enthusiastic crowd, Jeb Bush’s other events were far more muted.
[Jeb Bush suspends 2016 campaign] Bush’s uneasy presentations at town halls in the final days of the primary race reflected the anxiety within his orbit about the future of his candidacy. He often veered from his standard talk of his Florida accomplishments to rebuke Trump.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, meanwhile, was hoping for a finish just strong enough to justify his focus on the March 8 Michigan primary as his best hope for a victory. A crippling moment came Wednesday when South Carolina’s popular governor, Nikki Haley, endorsed Bush’s one-time Florida protege, Rubio. She then barnstormed the state with Rubio as well as Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy for three straight days.
The tone of the South Carolina campaign has been overwhelmingly negative, and not only because of the millions of dollars in attack ads that flooded television stations in the final week. The candidates themselves have carried on an acrid dialogue in which the words “liar” and “lying” have been injected into campaign rhetoric at a volume rarely seen even in a state known for brutal intra­party contests. Sounding a triumphant note in his Saturday night speech to supporters, Rubio said: “Ronald Reagan made us believe that it was ‘morning in America’ again — and it was. Now, the children of the Reagan Revolution are ready to assume the mantle of leadership.”
In the last hours before the primary, Trump sought to brush off two recent controversies — one involving former president George W. Bush, whom Trump accused of lying about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003, and the other with Pope Francis, who criticized Trump’s proposal of building a wall along the Mexican border as being “not Christian.” Scott Clement in Washington contributed to this report.
During a town hall meeting hosted by CNN on Thursday night, Trump softened his tone toward the pontiff and equivocated when pressed by a voter about whether he truly believed that Bush had lied before launching the invasion.
Costa reported from Charleston, S.C., and DeBonis reported from Washington. Jenna Johnson in North Charleston, S.C.; Jose A. DelReal, Sean Sullivan and Ed O’Keefe in Greenville, S.C.; Dan Balz in Charleston, S.C., and Scott Clement in Washington contributed to this report.