Trump wins S.C. Republican primary, Bush drops out

He didn’t, however, get the backing of the state’s Gov. Nikki Haley, who swung her support behind Rubio.

A teary-eyed Mr Bush said he was proud of the campaign he ran to unify the country and advocate conservative solutions. Bush brought his brother, former President George W. Bush, onto the campaign trail this week in SC, but it did little to improve his fortunes.

But he quickly slid in the polls behind some of his more outspoken Republican rivals such as billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz remain locked in a tight battle for second place.

State Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said possible reasons for the sharp increase in absentee voting include campaign efforts to get voters to vote absentee, more awareness of how to do it because of the Internet and social media, early voting in neighboring states influencing people in SC to vote early with absentee ballots and the desire to skip long lines on the day of the election. Some polls showed Trump with a double-digit lead over his five challengers while some polls trimmed that lead down to single digits.

Behind Trump, a furious battle is raging for second place between a pair of Cuban-American senators, Rubio and Cruz, who have engaged in a series of angry exchanges that reflect the intensity of the SC race.

But as Cruz took the stage after a disappointing night when he was expected to have a strong second-place finish, he went after Trump’s electability. Bush’s campaign suspension could aid Rubio by consolidating more of the Republican establishment’s support around the Florida senator. “The presidency is bigger than any one person”. In fact, Kasich has already turned his attention to delegate-rich Super Tuesday states which will vote on March 1, and is in MA watching results tonight, not SC.

Rubio began his speech by congratulating Trump. Half of voters surveyed said they felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.

Hundreds of people are gathered in a ballroom at the Spartanburg Marriot to hear Mr Trump deliver a victory speech. It’s tough, it’s nasty.

“Let’s put this thing away”, the real estate mogul crowed, looking ahead to Super Tuesday fights and boasting again of his big win last week in New Hampshire.

How Bush found himself out of the race after just the third nominating contest of 2016 is a cautionary tale of political miscalculation and strategic errors, according to interviews with a dozen Republican operatives, many with close ties to the Bush campaign and others who worked for the last two Republican presidential nominees, conducted during the last days of his campaign.

” I am so, so thrilled and so grateful to all of my supporters out there”.

“I believe when Democrats assemble in Philadelphia in July at the convention we are going to see the results of one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States”, said Sanders. “Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other”, Clinton said.

Sen. John McCain won the 2008 SC primary on his way to the Republican nomination.

Clinton, who at one point only a month ago was up by 17 percentage points in Nevada, garnered 52.4 percent of those caucusing Saturday.