Donald Trump Defeats Nikki Haley by 20 Points in South Carolina Republican Primary
Haley lost in the state where she used to serve as Governor.
The presidential primary occurred today in South Carolina to select 50 delegates for the 2024 Republican National Convention. Today’s contest was solely for the Republican primary as Democrats held their contest three weeks ago - which incumbent President Joe Biden won handily with over 96% of the vote.
Election watchers called the race for Donald Trump when the polls closed at 7PM (EST). He won the 2024 South Carolina Republican Primary with 59.8% against Nikki Haley with 39.5%, and five others with 0.7%. 755,800 votes have been counted.
The 50 RNC delegates at play in South Carolina will be divided proportionally amongst the top candidates. 29 delegates will be allocated based on the statewide popular vote. Meanwhile, each of the state’s seven congressional districts will award 3 delegates apiece. Those are determined by the popular vote within those congressional district lines. As of now, Trump has received 44 delegates and none have gone to Haley. Despite the statewide blowout, Haley is currently competitive in two of the state’s congressional districts.
1,215 delegates are needed to secure the presidential nomination. After five contests, the current tallies have Trump at 107, Haley at 17, Ron DeSantis at 9, and Vivek Ramaswamy at 3. Trump has won every state so far this cycle.
Before today’s contest, Haley had only won two counties - Johnson County, Iowa (by one vote!) and Grafton County, New Hampshire. And now in her home state, she currently posts majorities in three counties - Beaufort, Charleston and Richland.
Trump served as President of the United States from January 2017 to January 2021. He is currently under criminal indictment on 91 felony charges in four separate jurisdictions - with his first trial starting March 25, 2024. He has also been found liable for over half a billion dollars across several civil lawsuits.
Haley served as the Governor of South Carolina from January 2011 to January 2017 and as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from January 2017 to December 2018. Despite her loss, she has pledged to stay in the race - with the Michigan primary next week and Super Tuesday the following week.
In the 2020 presidential election, Trump won South Carolina with a 55.11-43.43 finish against Biden. That came as Trump was ultimately losing the national contest.