(25 Feb 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4480006
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington - 24 February 2024
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1. SOUNDBITE (English) Josh Boak, Associated Press:
"AP VoteCast has the details on how Donald Trump won South Carolina's Republican primary. Voters on Saturday in South Carolina said that Trump can win in November, will keep the country safe, and has the mental capability to be president. Trump won with the same kind of coalition that delivered victories for him in Iowa and New Hampshire. These were white voters who tended to be older and who did not have a college degree. The tough news for Nikki Haley is that her voters were almost overwhelmingly people who said Democrat Joe Biden legitimately won in 2020. The problem is less than a third of Republican voters in South Carolina felt that way. In other words, the majority of South Carolina voters do not think that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president. Still, in a possible 2024 rematch between Biden and Trump, we see some Trump weaknesses. About four in ten Republican voters said that Trump would be too extreme possibly to win in November."
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STORYLINE:
Donald Trump won over South Carolina Republicans as the candidate who voters believe can win in November, keep the country safe and has the mental capability to be president.
Trump cruised to victory in the South Carolina primary with the support of an almost unwavering base of loyal voters. AP VoteCast found that Republicans in the state are broadly aligned with Trumps’s goals: Many question the value of supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia; most see immigrants as hurting the U.S., and an overwhelming majority suspect that there are nefarious political motives behind Trump’s multiple criminal indictments.
Even in her home state of South Carolina, where she was once governor, Nikki Haley appeared to have little chance against Trump. Only about half of GOP voters had a favorable view of her, whereas about 7 in 10 had a positive view of Trump.
About 6 in 10 South Carolina voters consider themselves supporters of the “Make America Great Again” movement, a Trump slogan that helped catapult him to the White House in 2016. About 9 in 10 Trump voters said they were driven by their support for him, not by objections to his opponent. Haley’s voters were much more divided: about 6 in 10 were motivated by supporting her, but about 4 in 10 turned out to oppose Trump.
AP VoteCast is a survey of more than 2,400 voters taking part in Saturday’s Republican primary in South Carolina, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
Trump’s victory in South Carolina looked remarkably similar to his wins in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. It’s a sign that regional differences that once existed within the GOP have been supplanted by a national movement that largely revolves around the former president.
Trump, 77, won in South Carolina with voters who are white and do not have a college degree, one of his core constituencies. About two-thirds of Trump’s backers in this election fell into that group.
Majorities believe Trump – but not Haley – is a candidate who can emerge victorious in November’s general election. Voters were also far more likely to view Trump than Haley as someone who would “stand up and fight for people like you” and to say he would keep the country safe. And about three-quarters say he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president.
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