OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
9:30 AM – Sunday, February 25, 2024
In the South Carolina primary over the weekend, Donald Trump defeated Republican opponent Nikki Haley, earning the former president yet another victory.
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On Saturday, after the votes closed at 7:00 p.m., Trump was declared winner with all 29 winner-take-all state delegates. By the time 65% of the votes were casted, Trump had a nearly 20-point lead.
“This was a little sooner than we anticipated. And even a bigger win than we anticipated,” Trump announced on stage at the state fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina, after the win. “I have never seen the Republican Party as United as it is right now.”
In addition, Trump did not mention Haley at all in his comments.
A number of prominent South Carolina Republicans joined Trump on stage, including Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who supported Trump after he withdrew from the primary despite having been nominated to Congress by Haley in 2013.
When Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who endorsed Trump but has had disagreements with him in the past, was introduced, the audience booed him loudly.
Haley, a two-term governor of the Palmetto State, was counting on her home state to perform better than Iowa and New Hampshire. She praised Trump on his win in her concession statement on Saturday night, but she also claimed that he is “not the Republican most likely to defeat United States President Joe Biden” in November.
She also declared that she is not leaving just yet.
“What I saw today was South Carolina’s frustration with our country’s direction. I’ve seen that sense of frustration nationwide,” Haley said at a campaign event. “This has never been about me or my political future. We need to beat Joe Biden in November. I don’t believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden,” she said, adding that Trump “drives people away.”
“There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative,” she added.
With his win in South Carolina, Trump is getting closer to securing the GOP nomination. By 9:00 p.m., as the votes came in, he had amassed nine more of the 21 delegates that the congressional district results awarded.
So far in the 2024 election cycle, Trump has emerged victorious in every primary, surpassing his opponents by double digits in Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire, and the United States Virgin Islands.
In the week before the primary, Trump recruited a retinue of surrogates, including Lara Trump and 2024 contender Vivek Ramaswamy, to campaign on his behalf in South Carolina.
Speaking to an audience of about 6,000 people on Friday night in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Trump predicted that Haley would have a “very bad day” on Saturday because she is “not a nice person.”
Supporters of Trump, including the former president himself and former 2024 contender Senator Tim Scott have voiced their opinion about wanting Haley eliminated from the race, asserting that she is “hurting the country.”
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