How to win the South Carolina GOP primary

CNN ^ | February 18, 2016 | Gibbs Knotts

[2ndDivisionVet]

There's no magic formula to winning the South Carolina GOP primary, but for the best shot at victory February 20, candidates will have to navigate three key groups of Republican primary voters.

They must do this while being mindful of something else: South Carolina Republicans are fiscally and socially conservative and often display a strong distrust of government, particularly the federal government.

So, first, they need to connect with evangelical Christians.

South Carolina is the buckle of the Bible belt, and according to the 2012 exit polls, evangelicals made up 65% of the state's GOP primary voters. Evangelicals propelled Ted Cruz to victory in Iowa, where he won 34% of the evangelical vote, and I expect him to have the advantage among this group in South Carolina.

Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have also shown an ability to connect with evangelical voters, however, each winning about 21% of the evangelical vote in the 2016 Iowa caucuses.

Second, several of the candidates must appeal to the core group of anti-Washington voters that have long existed in South Carolina and make up a sizable portion of the Republican primary electorate. Two of the state's most famous political figures, John C. Calhoun and Strom Thurmond, embodied this anti-Washington sentiment....

[TigerClaws]

Have The Pope make your strongest issue the headline nationwide 2 days before the voting!

Trump 16.

[cba123]

Lol.

:)

[PAR35]

The anti-Washington category overlaps greatly, but doesn’t entirely cover the Heritage voters. You can be anti-Washington, but if you are anti-heritage you are going to lose those voters. And support from Nikki is going to hurt more than it will help at this point.

[bigbob]

Nobody’s voting for Evangelist-in-Chief

[kabar]

Use the name Trump and you will win.

[upchuck]

From the article:

I'm certainly not an election forecaster, but a recent CNN/ORC poll indicates that Donald Trump should have a good day on Saturday. The state should also narrow the current field of six candidates and will likely anoint Trump's rival for upcoming contests.

and

Though the 2016 elections have been a difficult cycle for establishment candidates, the states' GOP voters take considerable pride in backing the eventual Republican nominee, successfully picking the nominee in every contested election from 1980 to 2008.

Go TRUMP!!

[Albion Wilde]

Self-fund your campaign and promise to stop cussin’.