Former US president Donald Trump on Saturday won South Carolina’s Republican primary, easily beating former UN ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state and further consolidating his path to a third straight nomination.
Trump has swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates, adding to previous wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the US Virgin Islands. Haley is facing growing pressure to leave the race, but says she is not going anywhere despite losing by more than 20 percentage points in the state where she was governor from 2011 to 2017.
A 2020 rematch between Trump and US President Joe Biden is becoming increasingly inevitable.
Photo: AFP
Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on Tuesday next week, known as Super Tuesday, when voters in 15 states and one US territory would deliver one-third of the delegates to the Republican National Convention, which would choose a nominee in July.
However, she was unable to dent Trump’s momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Trump would hamstring him against Biden.
“I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now,” Trump said, taking the stage for his victory speech mere moments after polls closed.
South Carolina’s first-in-the-south primary has historically been a reliable bellwether for Republicans. In all but one primary since 1980, the Republican winner in the state has gone on to be the party’s nominee. The lone exception was Newt Gingrich in 2012.
Many Trump-backing South Carolinians, even some who previously supported Haley during her time as governor, were not willing to give her a home-state bump.
“She’s done some good things,” Davis Paul, 36, said about Haley as he waited for Trump at a recent rally in Conway. “But I just don’t think she’s ready to tackle a candidate like Trump. I don’t think many people can.”
Haley’s campaign has released an aggressive schedule for the next several days, during which she will crisscross the country, from Massachusetts to Utah.
“They have the right to a real choice, not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate,” Haley told supporters on Saturday night after her defeat. “I have a duty to give them that choice.”
She appeared to have done somewhat better than statewide opinion polls had projected, which could give her an opportunity to argue that she has some momentum as the race expands to more states.
In remarks to supporters, Haley said her share of the vote demonstrated that a sizeable number of Republicans still harbor doubts about Trump.
Additional reporting by Reuters
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS