GOP candidates make final S.C. pitch
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Republican presidential candidates traversed South Carolina on Friday - upstate, low country, and in between - to make urgent final appeals one day before the state's primary, as polls showed a tightening race after a week of nasty campaigning.
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Republican presidential candidates traversed South Carolina on Friday - upstate, low country, and in between - to make urgent final appeals one day before the state's primary, as polls showed a tightening race after a week of nasty campaigning.
Can Donald Trump lock down his place as the undisputed GOP front-runner? And can anyone break away from the rest of the pack to end the party's stalemate and challenge him?
When ballots are counted Saturday night, voters might have provided some answers to these and other pressing questions about the GOP race, which some party strategists are predicting could go on for a while.
Trump predicted he would "run the table" and win the nomination if voters give him a victory in South Carolina. "The only thing I'm a little weak on is my personality, but who cares?" Trump said at a rally in Myrtle Beach. "I'll never let you down."
A poll conducted for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News and released Friday found that Trump's once-formidable South Carolina lead has narrowed as some of the GOP's most conservative voters have shifted toward Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Trump had the support of 28 percent among likely Republican primary voters, down 8 percentage points from the same survey in January, while Cruz's support inched up to 23 percent, according to the poll, conducted by Marist College. Trump's lead was 16 points last month.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had 15 percent, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had 13 percent, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson had 9 percent each.
Other surveys in the final hours of the race showed Rubio edging into second place over Cruz, but polling is volatile in a state where the primary is open to independents and Democrats.
Some polls show that a significant share - perhaps has much as 10 percent - of Trump supporters have not voted in previous primaries, a sign that he could underperform.
Everywhere he went, Trump implored his audiences to get out and vote for him. South Carolina polling places are scheduled to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
So far, nobody has commanded anything near a majority of Republican voters. There's little incentive for those who aspire to unite establishment-oriented Republicans to get out of the race and let a rival consolidate the votes.
"Tell me a state Trump can't win in this situation," said U.S. Rep. Tom Rice (R., S.C.), who is neutral in the race. "But his 30, 35 percent is both a floor and a ceiling; it's not growing. What happens when we get to the convention and there's no consensus nominee?"
Rubio began a fly-around that would take him as far south as Hilton Head Island, and to Clemson, in the northwest near the Georgia border, with a rally in downtown Columbia that drew several hundred people.
Rubio, a Latino, was flanked by political leaders here who have endorsed him: Gov. Nikki Haley, an Indian American; Tim Scott, an African American U.S. senator; and U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, who is white.
"The new conservative movement looks like a Benetton commercial," Haley shouted to the crowd, in case anyone missed the message that Rubio represents a new generation of GOP leadership.
Bush, the son and brother of presidents, embraced the older generation. He toured the up-country with a thicket of Bushes: his mother, Barbara, the former first lady; his wife, Columba; his son Jeb Jr.; and two younger brothers, Neil and Marvin. Former President George W. Bush campaigned for him earlier in the week.
Major donors have indicated that they will press Bush to drop out if he does not place in the top three here, or if Rubio emerges as the clear leader of the establishment "lane."
Cruz was in Washington for much of the day for the funeral of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Kasich predicted he would do better than expected. His plan is to hang on to fight on friendly terrain in the Michigan and Ohio primaries in mid-March.
215-854-2718@tomfitzgerald
StartText
Follow Saturday's voting with live updates at www.philly.com/primaryresults
Today: South Carolina GOP primary, Nevada Democratic caucuses
Tuesday: Nevada GOP caucuses
Feb. 27: South Carolina Democratic primary
March 1: Super Tuesday, with voting in more than a dozen states