Donald Trump won the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday, according to The Associated Press, a development that solidifies the business moguls status as the GOP's national front-runner.
Trump's victory in the Palmetto State, on top of his double-digit victory in New Hampshire, puts him in a strong position has he heads into Nevada's Republican caucuses Tuesday and the slate of 13 states voting on Super Tuesday, March 1.
The victory comes following a Friday NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey that showed Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) with 28 and 23 percent support among likely Republican voters respectively going into Saturday's South Carolina primary. The results indicated that Trump had a strong chance of taking the state, but it was a still a drop from the 36 percent support he had just one month before.
Contrary to the results, Cruz who was slated for a second place finish (if Trump indeed took first) is currently in a fight for second with Sen. Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.) who had 15 percent support in the poll. Similarly, Jeb Bush, who despite having ex-President George W. Bush aiding his campaign in the past week, is fighting for a fourth place finish with Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio). Coming in last is Ben Carson, who despite coming across various difficulties in his campaign, has vowed to remain in the running so long as he has the support of "We the People."
Trump's victory doesn't just establish him as the front-runner within the GOP and adds on to his momentum into the coming weeks, but it makes it difficult for critics within the party, who are loath to have him serve as their nominee, to argue that they have a viable means to stop him.
Most importantly however, it will serve to unnerve the Republican establishment, who has relied on South Carolina to serve as reliable indicator of conservative opinion after siding with the eventual nominee in every GOP presidential race since 1980, apart from Newt Gingrich in 2012. After attacking George W. Bush, who is popular in S.C., as well as entering a brief feud with Pope Francis, his win illustrates that Trump is capable of taking on positions that would prove to be the undoing of almost any other U.S. politician.
