Free Republic

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he "effectively tied" Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for second place in South Carolina's Republican primary, as the two senators were separated by a little more than 1,000 votes, but both finished far behind front-runner Donald Trump. Despite only winning one of the early voting states so far, Cruz believes his combined results show he is the "only one strong conservative remaining in this race who can win" the Republican presidential nomination. "Our game plan from day one was do well in the first four states and consolidate conservatives to go forward into Super Tuesday," Cruz...

Coming hot off his win in New Hampshire -and with a significant amount of his time devoted to South Carolina- it’s little surprise that Trump is 16-17 points ahead. It appears that the only demographics that Trump isn’t currently winning are 18-29 year-old voters and self-described “very liberal” voters, who prefer Rubio and Kasich, respectively. Evangelists prefer Trump to Cruz by a margin of 10 points – a significant change from Iowa, where Cruz led with evangelical voters by four points. When respondents were asked of their second choice for the nomination, Rubio and Cruz command the first and second...