Donald Trump rolled to an easy victory in the South Carolina primary Saturday as he captured 44 of the Palmetto State’s 46 counties, outdistancing his nearest opponent by more than 70,000 votes.
Trump received 32 percent of the vote, but, more importantly for him, he gained 50 delegates to the National Convention. Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire — which hand out delegates proportionally based on voting percentage — South Carolina is a winner-take-all primary. Even though Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz each received 22 percent of the vote, they will leave the state empty-handed.
Despite campaigning heavily in South Carolina — and even pulling in his brother and former president George W. Bush to campaign for him — Jeb Bush finished the evening in a distant fourth place. After a third straight state where his campaign failed to gain traction, Bush exited the race, which leaves five candidates remaining.
Bush often found himself on the receiving end of insults from Trump, and Trump even went so far as to buy the domain name JebBush.com and have it redirect to his own home page. In his state victory speech, Trump acknowledged the difficulties of campaigning that were all too familiar for Bush.
“There’s nothing easy about running for President, I can tell you,” Trump said. “It’s tough, it’s nasty, it’s mean, it’s vicious, it’s beautiful: When you win, it’s beautiful. We’re going to start winning for our country.”
The primary schedule begins to heat up heading into March as Republicans caucus in Nevada on Feb. 23 before voting occurs in 11 states during the March 1 “Super Tuesday” vote.
The Republicans will be competing for the favor of almost 600 delegates, with the bulk of them coming from Cruz’s home state of Texas.
After winning the Iowa caucus by a historically narrow margin, Hilary Clinton defeated Bernie Sanders more comfortably in the Nevada Democratic caucus.
Clinton received 52 percent of the vote — 5 percent more than Sanders — and gained 19 of the 34 available pledged delegates. Clinton captured three-fourths of her vote tally from Clark County, home of Las Vegas.
“Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other, and this one’s for you,” Clinton said in her victory speech. “It is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back. We’re going to build ladders of opportunity in their place.”
The minority vote provided a major source of contention between the two candidates, as each tried to gain the upper hand. According to the exit polls and the Washington Post, Sanders appears to have been favored by Latino voters, while African American voters tended to side with Clinton.
Unlike the Republican party, the Democratic party allows for party leaders called superdelegates to vote for the candidate of their choice at the National Convention, regardless of how constituents vote. Clinton and Sanders are deadlocked at 51 pledged delegates apiece after three states, but Clinton currently maintains a large lead in superdelegate support.
The Democrats will vote in South Carolina on Saturday in a primary before voting in 12 states — including Sanders’s home state of Vermont and Clinton’s former home of Arkansas — on “Super Tuesday.”