South Carolina primary 2024: Trump projected to win, Haley vows to stay in the race
What can we take away from Trump's big Palmetto State victory?
Former President Donald Trump has won the South Carolina Republican primary, ABC News projects. It was a swift and embarrassing defeat for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who rose to political prominence as South Carolina’s governor. Nevertheless, in her concession speech, Haley vowed to continue her campaign into Super Tuesday on March 5.
Throughout the evening, 538 reporters, analysts and contributors broke down the results as they came in with live updates, analysis and commentary. Read our full live blog below.
Latest headlines:
You guys never watched “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”?
Am I the only one who uses the term "bet your bippy"??
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Don't underestimate the ego factor
Right, so why is Haley sticking around if Trump is the presumptive nominee? We've put together a few hypotheses — spite, in case something happens, sticking it to the man etc — but, as ever with politicians, we cannot discount the possibility that she's in it for her. I keep thinking of Beto O'Rourke's "born to run" comments in the 2020 primary. A lot of politicians think this way!
—G. Elliott Morris, 538
But Haley doesn’t need to stay in the race for that, Monica
Haley’s name is already on the ballot in most future primary contests, as is DeSantis’s, Ramaswamy’s, etc. Haley can drop out of the race and then just jump back in if something happens to Trump. (You can bet your bippy that DeSantis would do that.) It’s not like Haley is going to win many delegates by losing to Trump by 30 points in every state.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
That's a wrap!
As of 9:20 p.m., 70 percent of the expected vote is reporting in South Carolina, and Trump is leading Haley by 20 points. It’s a decisive victory for the former president, as expected, though a somewhat smaller margin than his average lead in the polls heading into today (around 28 points).
Haley’s margin of defeat, though, looks even larger when it comes to delegates: Under South Carolina’s delegate allocation system, over half the state’s 50 delegates are awarded to the statewide winner, while the rest are awarded by congressional district. It looks like the maximum delegates Haley could walk away with in her home state tonight is three, if she holds onto her lead in the 1st District.
Despite this, Haley proclaimed in her speech that tonight’s result demonstrated her home state’s frustration with the country’s direction and reiterated her promise to stay in the race.
And on that note ... We hope to see you back here for our Super Tuesday live blog on March 5! We're gearing up for an eventful night tracking not only the presidential race in 15 states (and one territory) but a slew of down-ballot primaries in Senate, House and gubernatorial races as well.
—Tia Yang, 538