First Take: History is now on Donald Trump's side
First Take: History is now on Donald Trump's side
Susan Page, USA TODAY 7:30 p.m. EST February 21, 2016
Donald Trump won the South Carolina primary with one-third of the total vote. After thanking his supporters, Trump called for a big win in Nevada. VPC
Donald Trump may be a presidential candidate who is almost without precedent, but history is now on his side.
The billionaire businessman who has never sought public office before scored a decisive win in the South Carolina primary Saturday night, solidifying his standing as the unlikely front-runner who is now on a path to claim the Republican presidential nomination in July. The first-place finish came on the heels of a near-record victory in the New Hampshire primary earlier this month.
Since the South Carolina contest moved up on the political calendar in 1980, no Republican has carried both New Hampshire and South Carolina and then failed to win the nomination. Two of those three predecessors, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, went on to win the White House.
"Let's have a big win in Nevada," Trump told a triumphant victory rally, congratulating Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. "Let's put this thing away."
Cruz and Rubio were battling for second place. The two first-term, Cuban-American, 40-something senators each hope eventually to emerge as the alternative to real-estate magnate, setting up a head-to-head contest that might consolidate the majority of voters who don't now back Trump.
Trump mocked that suggestion from pundits. "They don't understand that as people drop out, I'm going to get a lot of those votes also," he said.
The real-estate magnate once again won a broad-based victory, including finishing first among the evangelical Christians who made up nearly three-fourths of the South Carolina GOP electorate. He finished first among those who cited the economy and jobs as their top concern, those who cited immigration, and those who cited terrorism. (Cruz finished first among those who named government spending.)
And Trump won after a series of skirmishes in recent days that might have undone a typical candidate, including public skirmishes with both former president George W. Bush (a popular figure here) and Pope Francis.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...bush/80677590/
