Trump eyes another easy win in South Carolina as voters head to polls

The former U.S. president is seeking to cement his status as the Republican Party's effective presidential nominee in the South Carolina contest, while his lone remaining challenger, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, hopes a stronger-than-expected performance in her home state buoys her long-shot campaign. Trump is overwhelmingly favored to win the vote in the Southern state on Saturday.

South Carolina voters cast their ballots on Saturday in the party's fifth nominating contest in a campaign Donald Trump has dominated from the outset despite facing dozens of criminal charges. The former U.S. president is seeking to cement his status as the Republican Party's effective presidential nominee in the South Carolina contest, while his lone remaining challenger, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, hopes a stronger-than-expected performance in her home state buoys her long-shot campaign.

Trump is overwhelmingly favored to win the vote in the Southern state on Saturday. He swept the first four contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands, knocking out the lion's share of the initially large Republican field along the way. Immigration was the number one issue for voters in the Saturday's primary, according to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research.

Some 41% of voters polled said immigration mattered most in how they voted on Saturday, compared with 31% who said the economy was their top issue, according to the poll, which gathered responses from 1,508 voters. Some 84% of voters said the economy is not so good or poor, with 16% saying it is excellent or good Some 32% of voters said Trump would not be fit for the presidency if he were convicted of a crime, while about 65% did not think Democratic President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election, the poll showed.

Before flying to South Carolina to watch returns on Saturday, Trump addressed a gathering of conservative activists near Washington in a 90-minute speech that painted a dark picture of a declining America under Biden. He said if he beats Biden in the Nov. 5 general election, it will represent a "judgment day" for the U.S. and "my ultimate and absolute revenge."

Haley, a native of South Carolina who served as the state's governor from 2011 to 2017, dismissed suggestions this week that a home-field defeat would prompt her to end her White House bid, even though she does not have a clear path to the nomination. Opinion polls show Trump holding an average statewide lead of 30 percentage points, according to the poll tracking website 538.

"We don't anoint kings in this country," she said on Tuesday during a campaign appearance in Greenville, South Carolina, adding that she was "not going anywhere" regardless of the primary's outcome. She has vowed to press on to Super Tuesday in early March, when 15 states and one U.S. territory will vote, including Texas, Virginia and North Carolina, awarding around one-third of the delegates to July's Republican National Convention, which will choose the nominee.

But a lopsided victory on Saturday for Trump, 77, would only increase pressure on Haley, 52, to drop out so that the former president can turn his attention to campaigning against Biden. The president is already treating Trump as the Republican nominee and painting him as a mortal threat to the republic. Polls will close at 7 p.m. EST (0000 GMT).

'OPEN' PRIMARY South Carolina's primary is "open," allowing any registered voter to participate, which could offer Haley a boost if independents and Democrats - who tend to favor her over Trump - turn out in force.

In contrast to the campaign's early stages, Haley has sharply attacked Trump leading up to Saturday's vote, warning Republican voters that a third consecutive Trump nomination will end in defeat. Haley, whose foreign policy credentials are at the center of her campaign, has focused in recent days on Trump's stance toward Russia following the death of Alexei Navalny, the main opposition leader there.

She criticized Trump for waiting days before commenting on Navalny's death and then for failing to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin. She also condemned Trump's recent remarks that he would not defend NATO allies from a Russian attack if he felt they had not spent enough on defense. Kelli Poindexter, a Democrat and transcriptionist who lives in Columbia, the state capital, voted for Haley "simply to, maybe cancel out one of the Donald Trump votes."

"I think he's dangerous," Poindexter said. "I think he's a threat. And if Democrats come out and give a vote to Nikki, it takes one away from him." Kevin Marsh, a 59-year-old Republican and truck driver who also lives in Columbia, said he voted for Trump on Saturday because he trusts him more than Haley. "She's more of a globalist and I just can't support that," Marsh said.

With a massive lead in national opinion polls, Trump could effectively clinch the nomination by mid-March if he wins primaries at the same pace - just in time for his first criminal trial, which is scheduled to begin on March 25 in New York City. He is charged in that case with falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)