South Carolina: Trump wins, Jeb Bush drops out of GOP race
Donald Trump won big in South Carolina on Saturday, proving that recent polls were accurate and the GOP race is dwindling down quickly. With Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio neck and neck at 22%, Trump pulled in 32.5% of primary voters.
Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Ben Carson all finished way behind at 7% and Bush announced that he will suspending his campaign to reach the White House.
2011 photo/ Gage Skidmore
“I’m proud of the campaign that we’ve run to unify our country,” Bush said in an emotional speech Saturday night after his third straight disappointing finish in the early voting states. “The people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision.”
Rubio seems primed to tap into the establishment support from the Bush campaign.
“I give us the best chance to unify,” the Florida senator said.
He said the GOP race is increasingly about “who can win.”
“Who do the Democrats fear most? Who do they not want to run against? I think everyone now acknowledges that’s me,” he said. “We’ve got to bring the Republican Party together. We’re not gonna win — we’re not going to beat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders — if we’re still divided in September or October.”
Ted Cruz countered.
“It is now apparent that the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump and that has beaten Donald Trump is our campaign,” he said in an interview on “State of the Union” with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“Trump won this week despite coming out for [a] health care mandate, defending planned parenthood, blaming Bush for 9/11, standing by impeachment,” wrote NBC’s Chuck Todd on Twitter.
The most recent poll in Nevada predicts a similar outcome. In that poll by Gravis, Trump has 39%, followed by Cruz with 23% and Rubio at 19%. None of the other three candidates had more than 9% .
photo/ donkey hotey
