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Former US President Donald Trump (77) has won the primaries for the Republican presidential nomination in the state of South Carolina. The AP news agency and CNN broadcaster reported this unanimously on Saturday evening (local time), citing their own predictions. Trump’s competitor Nikki Haley (52), once governor of the conservative state in the southeast of the US, suffered a defeat as expected.
Trump and Haley fought another duel in South Carolina for their party’s nomination for the presidential elections on November 5. Anyone who wants to become a presidential candidate in the US must first win in the parties’ internal primaries. The candidates are then officially chosen at party conferences in the summer. The Republican nominating convention will take place in mid-July.
Haley, who is considered politically more moderate and rhetorically much more moderate than Trump, had hoped for a home field advantage in South Carolina. The 52-year-old was born here and was the first woman to hold the state governorship from 2011 to 2017. South Carolina is about the size of Austria and has more than five million inhabitants. About a quarter of the population is black. The South Carolina primary was the first vote in a southern US state.
Untouchable ex-president
Trump was already almost 30 percentage points ahead of Haley in the polls in South Carolina. In the national polls he leads by an even clearer margin. Former US ambassador to the United Nations, Haley, has little chance of ultimately prevailing over Trump. Nevertheless, she has so far refused to admit defeat. Trump also won the earlier primaries in the states of Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
Trump supporters have long urged Haley to drop out of the party’s internal race. Before the vote in South Carolina, Haley once again made it clear that the race was far from over and that she did not want to give up. Now there is special attention for March 5, the so-called Super Tuesday. On this day, Republican primaries are held simultaneously in fifteen states.
Trump’s victory in Haley’s home country once again underlines Republican support among the party base. Despite his legal troubles, he has not lost his popularity among his supporters. He is facing four criminal proceedings, including for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
There will probably be another duel between Trump and Biden
The 2024 election maps already predict that Trump will win the biggest primary victory among Republicans in decades. The triumph in South Carolina makes Trump’s candidacy for the Republicans in the presidential elections in November more likely. From now on, everything points to a new duel between him and the incumbent President Biden.
In internal party primaries, the number of votes up for grabs varies depending on the party and state. How primaries are conducted varies from state to state. Democrats and Republicans each follow their own system. In South Carolina, party supporters chose their favorite at polling stations on Saturday. In a few other states, voting takes place at small party meetings, called caucuses. (kes/SDA)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
