Trump Marches Into South Carolina With Base, Top Republicans in Train

 Former president has commanding lead in polls and among top leaders, while a sole Palmetto State congressman is supporing Nikki Haley.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster speaks during a rally for Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump in Manchester, N.H., on Jan. 20, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

CHARLESTON, S.C.—With the Republican nomination all but secured despite a longshot challenge from Nikki Haley, former President Donald Trump’s campaign is heading toward the South Carolina primary election this weekend with overwhelming support from the grassroots and the party elite in the Palmetto State.

During the previous contested GOP primary, in 2016, the state’s top Republican elected officials split in their endorsements.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Then-Gov. Haley and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

This time around, the vast majority of top South Carolina Republican politicians have scrambled to associate themselves with the former president that their constituents love.

The youngest lawmakers have risen politically on the strength of the former president’s endorsements. In South Carolina, as elsewhere, the GOP is increasingly President Trump’s party.

Mr. Graham, Mr. Scott, and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster are among the many top South Carolina GOPers who have thrown in with President Trump.

Ms. Haley would carry out Trump-like agenda items on energy, deportations, and more while drawing in more independent and young voters, he argued. She would also be poised to run again in 2028.

In his conversation with The Epoch Times, Mr. Norman made an unabashedly pro-Haley case. But the fact that his pro-Haley case wasn’t more anti-Trump may speak to the political realities on the ground.

That’s as true in much of the United States as it is in Mr. Norman’s own district, which President Trump carried by a huge margin in 2020.

If polls are an indicator, President Trump’s margin in South Carolina is shaping up to be huge too. A survey conducted Feb. 1–8 by Florida Atlantic University and Mainstreet Research shows President Trump leading his sole Republican rival by 42 points among probable primary voters, at 65 percent to 23 percent.

Ms. Haley’s strongest soldiers include Timothy and Amy Dillinger, a husband-and-wife team who were greeting attendees ahead of a Haley speech at New Realm Brewing Co. in Charleston on Feb. 4. They’ve volunteered at multiple Haley events.

“I voted for [Trump] twice, and never again,” Mr. Dillinger, a retired teacher, told The Epoch Times. “Like, sorry, you lost my support when you started talking smack about people.”

Ms. Dillinger, who said she worked for Estée Lauder for many years, told The Epoch Times that the events are taxing for her because of a physical disability. The next day is always hard.