In South Carolina’s Republican contest, Donald Trump defeated Nikki Haley on Saturday, extending his winning streak as he marched toward a third consecutive presidential nomination.
Trump had been widely favored to win the Southern state. Many opinion polls showed him holding a sizable lead.
Just minutes after the polls closed, Trump said that he had never seen the Republican party so unified “as it is right now.”
The former president of the USA has dominated all five contests thus far – in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and now Haley’s home state.
According to Edison, Trump was leading 59.7% to 39.7% with about half of the expected vote tallied.
Immigration was the main issue for voters in the Republican party on Saturday, according to an Edison exit poll. Trump has made the immigration topic a key focus of his election campaign. Nealy 39% of voters cited that issue compared with 33% who said the economy was their top problem.
However, once again, exit polls also pointed to Trump’s own vulnerabilities. Nearly one-third of voters on Saturday said Trump would be inappropriate to serve as president if he was convicted of a crime.