It’s not very often the home town folks get to vote for one of their own to be president of the United States.
It was an opportunity many in Bamberg County, South Carolina, passed up Saturday in the Republican presidential primary that pitted Bamberg native and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley against former President Donald Trump. Trump defeated Haley statewide by roughly a 20-percentage point margin.
Trump won Bamberg County with 65 percent of the votes against 35 percent for Haley, according to a county-by-county breakdown published by The New York Times.
Jerome Boyce of Denmark, not far from the town of Bamberg, said local or not, Haley could not compare with Trump, according to NPR.
“Trump has got it. Trump has a track record. Nikki Haley does not,” Boyce said.
Sharon Carter, chairwoman of the Bamberg County Republican Party, said she was officially neutral, but had a preference personally,
“It is astonishing to me that people are choosing Trump in her hometown,” Carter told NPR. “Because people who do know her know that she’s an authentically real person.”
Trump is our nominee.
I know that might be tough for the never-Trumpers and swamp monsters in Washington DC to accept, but it’s the truth.
Nikki Haley should quit wasting time and money and get behind our nominee.
— Rep. Mike Loychik (@MikeLoychik) February 25, 2024
A voter identified as Randy Maxwell said Haley losing her home state “will not look good for her.”
Should she drop out?
“It will not look good for any candidate if you don’t win your home state. Trump just has so much base that they’re not going to change,” Maxwell said, according to NPR.
Bamberg native Stephanie Crosby-Lee, a Democrat, said Haley ought to keep going as long as she wants.
“One thing I do know, she gave him a run for his money,” she said, according to NPR.
Trump defeats Haley in her own backyard, secured another decisive victory pic.twitter.com/OPPLyktVBy
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) February 26, 2024
The Trump camp estimates that might not be much longer, according to The New York Times.
The Times said that a memo circulating in the Trump campaign estimates that even if Haley matches her best showing in all of the upcoming contests, Trump will have won enough delegates to secure the GOP presidential nomination by March 19.
“The end is near,” Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, Trump’s co-campaign managers, wrote in the memo.
