Nikki Haley has spent far more money and time on the upcoming South Carolina Republican primary than her rival Donald Trump, yet still trails the former president by a wide margin there, despite it being her home state.
The Haley campaign and her two allied super political action committees have booked $8.4 million in advertising there since the New Hampshire primary, according to data from AdImpact. South Carolinians have seen their former governor traverse the state on a two-week bus tour. Pro-Haley signs dot front yards and residents are inundated by multiple ads for her campaign on TV.
That investment has failed to dent Trump in the polls, though, where he leads by over 30 percentage points ahead of the Feb. 24 primary, raising questions about whether donors will keep the spigot open for Haley, his last major challenger, into the next round of contests.
By contrast, Trump’s team has booked no advertising in the state, with Make America Great Again Inc., the super PAC supporting him, spending just a modest $67,000 on text messages, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.
The former president held rallies in recent days in Conway and North Charleston, but has not been a regular presence. That approach does not appear to have loosened his grip on the state’s Republicans.
“It’s not that people dislike her. It’s just that they like somebody else better,” Robert Oldendick, a professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina, said. “Haley can’t break through the ironclad hold Trump has on the people who will turn out in the primary election.”
That’s been the case in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada too, where the GOP base embraced Trump’s brand of politics and delivered him wins.
“If you look at South Carolina, it is a microcosm of the new Republican base, with a lot of white, blue-collar voters here. Trump does well with them,” said James Hodges, a former…
Read the full article here
