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 ...
Tough night for Cruz, but it’s early and I’m still hoping the conservative pulls it out. This is not the time to nominate a left leaning populist. We need a constitutional conservative to get our nation back. Tonight’s results make me wonder if we are too far over the edge already.
Momentum and perception are everything at this point in a primary. Ted is now lagging badly in both areas, which will make it all that much harder for him to recover.
Trump, on the other hand, is powering ahead in those two areas, and looks set to take Nevada, which will only serve to magnify the disparities between them.
Look for Trump to truly put the squeeze on Ted in the coming weeks. He’s got to knock him out to fully engage with his real opponent - the GOP-e.
He has hired the best, brightest, and most resourceful people in the business of winning elections. They have put together incredible organizations strategically all over the country. They are churning out the types of ads that have proved to be the most effective and releasing them in just the right markets at just the right times. They have exploited any openings that there opponents have given them and aggressively seized on them. They know just how for they can push things without penalty. In other words they are arguably one of the most formidable presidential election teams in the history of the country.
Unfortunately, they have one huge obstacle, Donald Trump. Trump doesn't play by the normal rules. He speaks his mind without fear of the consequences. He has presented ideas that resonate with the voters that no one else would dare even mention. Things like preventing Muslims from entering the country. This caused outrage and consternation worldwide. No one else would touch it; but Trump would not back down. But 75% of the voters in SC agreed with him.
The biggest problem Cruz's team has is that they are so “professional” that they are both extremely predictable and recognizable. Everyone recognizes the types of ads they put out as the slick political spin that are easily identified as political ads. Even their tactics on social media, robo-calls, radio and TV shows all come across as standard political BS. People are angry and they are not responding well to this... especially when they misstate other candidate's known positions, or they get caught twisting things.
Cruz needs to run not walk away from anything that makes him look like a typical lying slick politician. That type of image isn't selling this year. He keeps coming across looking eerily like a typical career politician regardless of his outsider status.
I see a lot of show roaring here. Not a whole lot of concern for the real truth. A lot of mocking of anybody who trusts in the Lord and not their own strength. Mockery by people who claim to be Christians. Sad.
He has high negatives for now, but I think those can lessen over time.
Also such things may not end up being that important at all. Too much emphasis seems to be placed on this metric.
It is beyond me why the big issue about Cruz isn’t his eligibility problem. We all want to see parents have their children grow up and become President. However, let’s say JFK had a Cuban father who had family in Cuba. Then comes the Cuban missile crisis. The Air Force is on major alert and has B-52 loaded with nukes in the air 24-7. Our inter continentals are armed and ready to go. And JFK says to himself,
“My father has family in Cuba. I don’t want to blow Cuba out of the water. Dammit! I think I’ll call the whole thing off and let Cuba have those damned Russian ICBMs. Yep! That’s the ticket.”
That’s what Founder, John Jay, was concerned about when he wrote General George Washington,
“Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government, and to declare expressly that the Command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.”
Unless the citizens of America get off their high horses and use a little pragmatic common sense, we are going to let those fantasy world dwellers of the Unicorn Farm flush this nation down the toilet of history.
We’ve had 7 years of “sweet deals”. I’m ready for something different.
Brought in a lot of Trump voters also known as democrats
Hey, the emperor has clothes!
And Trump never panders to Christianity? LOL. The only relationship Trump has with Christianity is his pandering.
Cruz is a tried-and-true Christian. If you can’t look at his record in Texas and in the courts and his family life and see that, you’re blind.
Obviously in a campaign, you play up the side of you that appeals to the voters you’re with. As long as it’s emphasis and not denial or flip-flopping, that’s not only fine, but anyone would be stupid not to do it.
The negatives will get worse in the general, when the media begins their all-out attacks.
Freepers are like one one-hundreth of a percent of the right wing voting base.
Don’t blame us for Ted’s loss.
Ted being called a liar isn’t anyone’s fault but Ted’s.
He did some questionable things, therefore he was questioned.
Ben Carson didn’t do anything.
THIS...
“He panders to Christianity only if there is a chance for his own political gain, not for the gain of God’s Kingdom.”
Ben Carson had his team tell CNN he wouldn’t be campaigning in NH or SC, and then when Cruz’s team mentioned that report Carson called Cruz a slimy liar.
In my world, bearing false witness is still a sin.
Trump got LESS votes than Gingrich last time. He is not turning out new voters judging by that. Unless he’s losing a ton of previous voters at the same time.
Rubio also got slightly less votes than Romney.
Cruz got about 60,000 more than Santorum, so if anybody is turning out new voters, it’s Cruz. The other 80,000 or so seem to be accounted for by the lower tier candidates at least getting close to 10%.
Agreed. Good post.
Cruz and his top advisors need to start thinking outside the box if they have any hope of beating Trump and winning the nomination.
Like you mentioned, Trump is not your usual run of the mill candidate - it will take a different and unique strategy to defeat him.
Trump is a New York values liberal who, just like Romney, did pre-campaign flip-flops on abortion and socialized medicine.
Trump supporters aren’t stupid. They are just very, very angry at the GOPe. I’m angry. too, as I’m sure most of us are, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
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