South Carolina primary results: Trump wins, defeating Haley in her home state

Shortly after learning that she had lost the Republican presidential primary her home state of South Carolina, Nikki Haley told supporters in Charleston that she was staying in the race.

"I'm grateful that today is not the end of our story. We're heading to Michigan tomorrow," Haley said.

Despite earning roughly 40% of the vote to Trump's 60% in South Carolina, Haley declared that "I don't believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden," and added, "40% is not some tiny group."

Haley's argument is that "there are huge numbers in our Republican primaries that want an alternative" to Trump.

Here's what's next in the Republican race for the presidential nomination:

Feb. 27: Michigan Republican primary

March 2: Michigan Republican caucus, Idaho Republican caucus, Missouri Republican caucus

March 3: District of Columbia Republican primary

March 4: North Dakota Republican caucus

Nikki Haley scored higher among male voters, while Donald Trump won more support from women voters. Trump had more success among 18- to 29-year-olds, while Haley did better with voters between the ages of 30 and 64. See how the Republican candidates fared in South Carolina with various demographics.

The Associated Press reports:

Read more from the AP on how the race was called.

Moments after being declared the winner in Saturday's Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, former President Donald Trump addressed his supporters in Columbia.

"This was a little sooner than we anticipated — an even bigger win that we anticipated," Trump said.

Trump easily defeated Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, and he made sure to savor his victory.

"I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now," Trump said.

Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, according to the Associated Press, defeating his rival Nikki Haley in her home state.

Despite a string of losses, Haley — who was South Carolina’s governor before Trump appointed her ambassador to the United Nations — has vowed to fight on.

“On Sunday, I'll still be running for president,” Haley said earlier this week. “I'm campaigning every day until the last person votes.

“In the 10 days after South Carolina, another 21 states and territories will vote,” she continued. “People have a right to have their voices heard. And they deserve a real choice, not a Soviet-style election where there's only one candidate, and he gets 99% of the vote.”

Read our full story on the South Carolina primary results here.

In a CBS News exit poll of voters in Saturday's Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, 72% said that Donald Trump, who is 77 years old, "has the physical/mental health to be president." Twenty-seven percent of those surveyed said Trump does not.

Notably, Trump's numbers were better than those for his Republican rival Nikki Haley, who is 52. Just 60% of voters told CBS News Haley possessed the physical and mental health required to be president, while 39% said she did not.

From an early exit poll taken by CNN, Just 32% of South Carolinians who voted in Saturday's Republican presidential primary said that President Biden legitimately won the 2020 election over former President Donald Trump. Sixty-five percent of those polled said they did not think Biden legitimately won.

CNN asked the same question of voters in New Hampshire's Republican primary and Iowa's GOP caucuses:

Unlike past Republican primary cycles, voters in Saturday's Republican presidential primary did not have the opportunity to see their candidates spar in a debate.

That's because Donald Trump, the clear frontrunner in the race, opted not to participate in any primary debates. And his sole remaining challenger, Nikki Haley, has frequently attacked him for that decision.

Voters have been left to wonder what might have been.

“A lot of people could argue that it’s not going to change anyone’s mind. But maybe it would. I mean, we haven’t seen it yet. We see a town hall with each of them, but not going head-to-head, and I think that’d be pretty important," Jackson Gosnell, a journalism student at the University of South Carolina, told The State.

Noah Lindler, another USC student and vice president of College Republicans, told the paper that he understood Trump's refusal to share a stage with Haley.

“There was really no need just based on polling numbers and where he stands, however, from a kind of a moral point of view he should have in order to allow voters to have the chance to hear what he says and how he’s able to argue his positions compared to other other candidates,” he said.

Read more from The State.

While Donald Trump is the favorite in Saturday's Republican primary in South Carolina, the state's former governor, Nikki Haley, has her share of supporters.

“She’s not the best woman for the job. She’s the best person for the job,” Judith Smith, a supporter sporting a homemade "Run Nikki Run" sign said at a Friday rally in Moncks Corner.

"I couldn’t miss this because I’m so proud of her,” Cindy Tripp, 59, who voted early for Haley, said of her chosen candidate at a Friday rally in Patriots Point.

Read more from the Guardian.

The eventual Republican nominee will need to win 1,215 delegates, a majority.

Right now Trump has 63 delegates to Haley's 17. Check out the full Yahoo News delegate tracker here.

South Carolina is awarding 50 delegates, the biggest haul to date. The candidate who gets the most votes statewide will get 29 of those delegates. The other 21 delegates will be awarded three at a time, to the top vote getter in each of the state's seven congressional districts.

This is a change from the first three states to hold primary contests. Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada all awarded delegates proportionally, so Haley was able to garner delegates in Iowa and New Hampshire by winning a percentage of the vote.

In South Carolina, if Haley does not win any congressional district votes, much less statewide, she will walk away with zero delegates.

On March 5 — Super Tuesday — the mother lode of delegates will be awarded by 15 states and and one U.S. territory. All told, 874 delegates are up for grabs that day.

Republican National Committeeman Henry Barbour of Mississippi is circulating two draft resolutions that would appear to target Donald Trump.

One draft resolution seeks to keep the RNC neutral on who will be the party's presidential nominee in 2024 until a candidate crosses the required delegate threshold.

The second looks to keep the RNC from paying a candidate's legal bills.

The RNC could vote on the two resolutions at its March meeting in Houston, but it is unclear whether either would garner enough support to pass.

Read more from the Associated Press.

President Biden’s reelection campaign posted clips of Donald Trump’s remarks about immigration during his speech at CPAC Saturday, pointing to the former president’s words as evidence of hypocrisy with regard to the southern border.

“It will be the largest deportation in the history of our country, and we have no choice,” Trump said during his 90-minute speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “And it's not a nice thing to say, and I hate to say it. Those clowns in the media will say, 'Oh, he's so mean. He's ...' No, no. They're killing our people. They're killing our country, they're killing our people — we have no choice.”

The big question for Nikki Haley is whether her six years as South Carolina's governor will translate into enough support to help her slow Donald Trump's march to the Republican presidential nomination.

"She was a wonderful governor in our state," Connie Gilliam, a 54-year-old retired teacher, told the AFP. "She did great things for South Carolina. And so we just feel like she would be a great president."

Most polls, however, show Haley trailing Trump by as much as 30 points in the state.

Read more from the AFP.

The Hill reports:

On Friday, Donald Trump Jr. reiterated his view that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson would make a good his running mate for his father.

“There would be a couple [of candidates] that I would love to see. If only just for the vice presidential debate. Like I’d love to see a Tucker Carlson go up against Kamala Harris. Just that would be fun,” Trump Jr. told reporters at the former president’s HQ in South Carolina.

In January, Trump Jr. signaled his support for the idea of a Trump/Carlson ticket.

“They’re very friendly, they agree on virtually all of these [issues], they agree on stopping the never-ending wars,” the former president's eldest son said on Newsmax. “I would love to see that happen. That would certainly be a contender.”

Voters showed up to cast their ballots in the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday — though many in the state had already voted.

According to the New York Times, South Carolina recorded nearly 270,000 early primary votes cast, both in person and through mail-in absentee ballots, ahead of Election Day.

Sen. Tim Scott owes Nikki Haley a political debt.

In 2012, Haley was governor of South Carolina when Sen. Jim DeMint left the Senate to run the Heritage Foundation.

Haley appointed Scott, then a congressman, to the Senate seat. He won a 2014 special election to finish DeMint's term and won reelection in 2016 and 2022.

But Scott's latest show of devotion to Donald Trump, in possible pursuit of the vice presidency, has driven him to repay Haley by campaigning against her presidential campaign in their mutual home state.

Scott has campaigned for Trump in South Carolina, including on Friday, and is the star of a Trump campaign TV ad airing in the state.

Trump took pleasure in bringing up Scott's decision to reject Haley after her support of his career, at a rally in New Hampshire the night he won that state's primary.

“She actually appointed you, Tim. You must really hate her," Trump said, looking at Scott standing behind him.

Scott stepped awkwardly to the microphones and said, with a big smile, "I just love you."

Haley has said she was disappointed that Scott did not call her to inform her personally that he intended to endorse Trump.

Haley's 22-year-old son, Nalin, has gone much further, calling Scott "Senator Judas" during campaign stops. Haley later said that Nalin "shouldn't say" that.

On Tuesday, Feb. 27, Michigan will hold its primary. Then a week later it’s Super Tuesday, when more than a third of all GOP delegates will be up for grabs as 15 states — Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia — and one territory (American Samoa) hold their primaries or caucuses.

As of now, Trump is not on the ballot in Colorado or Maine, where election officials declared him ineligible because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Trump appealed the Colorado decision to the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on the matter.

For a full list of what’s coming up, check out our 2024 election guide with all of the key dates here.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said Nikki Haley was one of his party’s best surrogates in the campaign to stop former President Donald Trump from becoming the Republican nominee for the White House in 2024.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday, Newsom said: “I think she’s one of our better surrogates, so I hope she stays in. I hope she does well tomorrow — at least, well enough,” referring to Saturday’s GOP primary in South Carolina.

Read more from The Hill.