Posted on 02/20/2016 10:43:13 PM PST by springwater13
72 percent.
That's the number of Republican voters in South Carolina's primary that identified as evangelical or born-again Christians, according to exit polling. That's an eye-popping, record-shattering figure: It was 65 percent in South Carolina's 2012 GOP primary, and 60 percent in 2008.
With three-quarters of the electorate identifying as evangelical, it was shaping up as a great night for Ted Cruz, who launched his campaign at Liberty University and has boasted of building a "firewall" to dominate the March 1 southern states because of their ultra-conservative, religious composition. South Carolina represented the first test of that theory.
Cruz failed. Among South Carolina's evangelical Republican voters, Trump won 33 percent, Cruz won 27 percent, and Rubio won 22 percent. And while Cruz did carry the 38 percent of "very conservative" voters in the state, it wasn't enough to finish anywhere close to Trump. Nor was it enough to beat Rubio, whom he finished roughly 1,000 votes behind.
This spells trouble for Cruz on Super Tuesday. He remains better-organized than any other candidate across the south (which should make a difference, considering both Trump and Rubio benefited from having impressive field operations in South Carolina). But there's no question Cruz's inability to carry the evangelical vote here portends poorly for him in states of similar ideological and demographic makeup.
That's a big problem for Cruz on March 1. But he faces even bigger challenges beyond then. Both Trump and Rubio performed evenly with non-evangelicals in South Carolina: Trump took 30 percent, and Rubio took 22 percent. But Cruz saw a significant drop-off, winning just 13 percent of that group. This echoes Cruz's performance in Iowa (33 percent with evangelicals, 19 percent with non-evangelicals) and New Hampshire (24 percent with evangelicals, 8 percent with non-evangelicals).
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Cruz is basically a spoiler candidate at this point and should drop out so we don’t get Rubio.
Carson got his revenge. Kept Cruz from the 2 spot.
This needs to be quenched, and *fast*.
If you have any high-powered spin, this is the thread you need to back up the truck and unload it onto.
I admit it. I think we need someone with the guts Trump has to win. But let’s not forget that Cruz was one of the very few heros in the Senate recently.
You can’t win only with social conservatives.
That makes you a fringe candidate. Just ask President Santorum.
Then why did Santorum place third in South Carolina but go onto win many Southern states and even only lost Ohio by 1%?
Cruz is a stronger candidate than Santorum, even in his South Carolina performance.
“Evangelical” is simply not a demographic that tells us everything about a person. Even conservative isn’t, as we saw Iowa “conservatives” vote different from NH “conservatives. South Carolina has its own character that does not appear to be in line with most other Southern states, as I get more into here.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3399812/posts
I was counting on Trump and Cruz smacking Rubio down and squashing him in SC...
Regardless of which one of them actually won it...
34% for Trump and 22% for Cruz would have been better if Rubio had gotten 9-12%
of course Kasich may have gotten a few more and we may have still had Jebbie ...
Trump and the GOPee.
So three small states have voted and its over, is that correct? Three small states should determine who the candidates are for the entire country.
I don’t think so.
National Review? Must be the outsourced night shift... writing so intelligently regarding all things Cruz. Trump took A L L 50 .... S H O C K I N G!!!!
It’s true. Cruz just today was saying “ this is going to be like Iowa”. They thought they had this.
I used to say of the Democrats: never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers. I now extend this to Trump supporters.
Cruz doesn’t have a viable path forward at this point. Rubio needs to be soundly defeated.
True Cruz is a getter candidate than Santorum was. That comparison would probably mean a lot if we were in That election cycle.
Check the 2008 primaries also. McCain won SC but lost Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kansas and Louisiana to Huckabee. So South Carolina is not really part of the social conservative lane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2008_Republican_Party_presidential_primaries
Huckabee has dropped out. Maybe you forgot.
I was counting on them kicking Rubio down as well. Actually surprised Rubio is even doing this well after the NH disaster. Such a stupid candidate.
He won’t go anywhere.
He’ll have to compete with Trump and Kasich for the same moderate vote.
Good luck with it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.