Donald Trump wins South Carolina primary

Former President Donald Trump has won the South Carolina Republican primary election, according to projections from the Associated Press (AP).

CNN called South Carolina’s Republican primary for Trump at 7 p.m., the moment polls across the state closed. The AP called the race minutes later.

The former president defeated former United Nations (U.N.) ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state on Saturday night, garnering about 52.9 percent of the vote, according to results from AP. Haley, a former state representative and governor of the Palmetto State, received 46.4 percent with 3 percent of the vote counted.

“This is a little sooner than we anticipated,” Trump said during his victory speech roughly 10 minutes after the polls closed. “And an even BIGGER WIN than we anticipated. I was just informed that we got double the number of votes that has ever been received in the great state of South Carolina so that’s pretty good so it’s a record times two.”

Haley is the last remaining major candidate challenging Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination after the rest of the once-crowded field exited the race over the past few months as the former president consistently polled well ahead of the pack and dominated early state primaries. Most recently, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race before the New Hampshire primary after placing a distant second to the former president in the Iowa caucus, the first election of the primary season. Haley placed third and has yet to secure a primary victory.

Earlier this month, Haley lost the Nevada Republican primary despite Trump not being listed on the ballot. While she was the only serious candidate on the ticket, Haley finished in second place, losing to “none of these candidates” by more than 30 points, according to Associated Press projections.

Newsweek reached out via email on Saturday night to representatives for Trump and Haley for comment.

Haley previously served as the governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, before being nominated by the Trump administration to be the United States ambassador to the U.N. from 2017 to 2018. Despite her ties to the state, polls have indicated that Haley was unlikely to score a major primary upset in South Carolina.

Due to her consistent losses to Trump, Haley has faced mounting calls to drop out, including from the former president himself. Despite the pressure to suspend her campaign, Haley has insisted that she plans to remain in the race no matter how poorly she performs in her home state.

“South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday I’ll still be running for President. I’m not going anywhere,” Haley said during a speech earlier this week.

She pledged during the speech to remain in the race until March 5, also known as “Super Tuesday,” where several states and U.S. territories hold primary races, handing out roughly a third of the GOP primary delegates at once.

Update 02/24/24, 7:28 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.