Just hours after Nikki Haley lost resoundingly to Donald Trump in her home state’s presidential primary Saturday and vowed to stay in the race, the immediate future looked bleak for the former South Carolina’s governor and Trump’s last remaining opponent.
The two will next compete on March 5 — “Super Tuesday,” in which no less than 16 states and territories will choose 876 delegates, or 36% of the Republican National Convention this summer.
Even before Trump’s big (61% to 39%) triumph in the Palmetto State Saturday, polls showed him demolishing Haley by 20 to as many as 60 percentage points in every Super Tuesday state.
In Texas, where there is no party registration, a recent Morning Consult poll showed Trump leading Haley by a whopping 84% to 15% among likely primary voters.
Massachusetts was a state in which Haley’s team clearly felt she had a chance because of the more moderate history of its GOP voters and the likelihood of independents crossing over to the Republican primary to support the onetime U.N. ambassador against Trump. But a just-completed Suffolk University poll shows Trump leading her by 55.4% to 38.3% among likely GOP primary voters in the Bay State.
Even before Super Tuesday, Trump and Haley will clash in the Michigan primary Feb. 27. Michigan has never had party registration and crossover voting from Democrats, and in 2012, boosted former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., to a near-upset of the more moderate Republican (and Michigan native) Mitt Romney. This time, likely primary voters favor Trump by 79 to 19%, according to Morning Consult.
“And keep your eye on Black voters in Michigan who come into the Republican primary to support President Trump,” Dr. Linda Lee Tarver, past vice chairman of the Ingham County (Lansing) GOP, told Newsmax, “A lot of us remember that unemployment among Black people was the lowest ever when he was president and his policies lifted up a lot of Blacks.” Tarver, who flew into Columbia, South Carolina for a pre-primary dinner of the Black Conservative Federation honoring Trump, is running for Republican National Committee committeewoman from Michigan.
As she did in New Hampshire, Haley counted on crossover votes to boost her total in South Carolina. But in both states, the strategy clearly did not work. Trump won both states handily, and his winning margin in South Carolina is the largest of any nonincumbent presidential candidate since the GOP primary began in 1980.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R.-S.C., an early Trump backer who is also a longtime friend of Haley and her husband, told Newsmax, “I can’t speak for anyone else, but if it were me, I would get out of the race now and urge the Republican Party to get behind our certain nominee — Donald Trump.”
Wilson's view was seconded by Kershaw County GOP Chair Amanda Outen, who would not say whether Haley should leave the race. But she quickly added: "As a party official, I had to remain neutral in the primary. But I'm also someone who listens to the grass-roots, and they are increasingly screaming 'Trump!'"