Donald Trump
Donald Trump, the brash New York billionaire who has upended all the rules of modern campaigning, won Saturday’s South Carolina primary in a decisive fashion that shrinks the prospects of his Republican presidential rivals to stop his march to the nomination.
It also brought an end to the campaign of Jeb Bush, who recently had become Trump’s biggest antagonist on the campaign trail. The former Florida governor gave an emotional speech, highlighting the importance of the nation over the individual.
“I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant, not the master –
someone who will commit to that service with honor and decency,” he said.
“I’m proud of the campaign we’ve run to unify our country,” Bush said. “But the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken.” Bush, the one-time favorite for the nomination, had staked the future of his campaign on a strong showing in South Carolina, a state his father and brother both won on the way to the White House. Bush brought his brother, former President George W. Bush, onto the campaign trail last week in South Carolina, but it did little to improve his fortunes.
The win slingshots Trump, who has successfully tapped into the anxieties and frustrations of voters, into the Nevada Republican caucuses on Tuesday and the so-called Super Tuesday states that vote March 1 and also have a heavy southern cast.
“As people drop out, I’m going to get a lot of those votes,” Trump said in his victory speech. His opposition remained splintered, with Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida jockeying for second place, according to early returns. The results made clear how difficult it will be to stop Trump as long as the field remains as large as it is.
With 87 percent of precincts reporting, Trump had 33.1 percent, followed by Rubio at 22.2 percent and Cruz at 21.8 percent. Bush had 8.2 percent, with Ohio Governor John Kasich at 7.8 percent and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 6.9 percent.
“After tonight this has become a three-person race and we will win the nomination,” Rubio told supporters. “Here in South Carolina, the message is pretty clear: this country is ready for a new generation of conservative leaders.”
In his speech, Trump spoke about the difficulty of running for president. “It’s tough. It’s nasty. It’s mean. It’s vicious. It’s beautiful,” he said. “When you win, it’s beautiful.”
Trump’s win follows a second-place finish in Iowa on Feb. 1 and a dominant victory in New Hampshire on Feb. 9, making it the latest example of the anti-establishment energy that has fueled this year’s campaign.
In a week of intensive campaigning here, Trump did things that would make a more traditional politician blanch. He sparred with Pope Francis, called for a boycott of Apple Inc., hinted that Boeing might pull some of its 8,000 manufacturing jobs out of the state and accused Cruz of lying and campaign dirty tricks. Southern gentility it was not, yet voters couldn’t seem to get enough.
The closeness of the results for the candidates behind Trump may mean South Carolina won’t significantly winnow the field before Nevada. Trump’s casino industry ties and ownership of property in Las Vegas is believed to give him an edge there.
Trump dominated the vote statewide and exit polls showed he won most major demographic groups. Even among born-
again Christians, Trump beat Cruz, 31 percent to 27 percent.
He also won the largest share of the vote among those who consider themselves moderates and those who self-identified as somewhat conservative, while Cruz beat Trump, 37 percent to 27 percent, among those who said they’re very conservative. John McCormick, Bloomberg
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