Republican South Carolina Primary results thread (polls close @7pm ET)

[Nathan Towne]

Shadow,

I see that you changed your mind and elected to switch your endorsement to Rubio.

So, do we have any information as to the size of the turnout in South Carolina?

[Nathan Towne]

To vote or not to vote, that is the question.  I think it's pretty clear that Rubio will outpace both Kasich and Bush by a significant margin, so the race will boil down to those three.  If Kasich were the one outpacing Rubio and Bush, I'd definitely vote today, but I'm not certain that Rubio needs my vote as much as Kasich would have.  But the numbers from the Nevada caucus would seem to indicate that Hillary will eventually win out over Bernie, so voting next Saturday won't do much either.

As a registered voter are you only permitted to vote in one of the two primaries in South Carolina? It sounds like you elected not to vote today.

[Nathan Towne]

I think Clinton winning in NV might marginally help Rubio since polls are still open in SC.

Why would Clinton winning in NV help Rubio?

I think that he is saying that people may vote for Rubio rather than their preferred candidate, like Trump or Cruz due to fear that neither of them can beat her in November. Many people believe (including myself) that Rubio is generally more electable than either of them.

[Nathan Towne]

To vote or not to vote, that is the question.  I think it's pretty clear that Rubio will outpace both Kasich and Bush by a significant margin, so the race will boil down to those three.  If Kasich were the one outpacing Rubio and Bush, I'd definitely vote today, but I'm not certain that Rubio needs my vote as much as Kasich would have.  But the numbers from the Nevada caucus would seem to indicate that Hillary will eventually win out over Bernie, so voting next Saturday won't do much either.

As a registered voter are you only permitted to vote in one of the two primaries in South Carolina? It sounds like you elected not to vote today.

Alright. South Carolina is a gorgeous state. Even though it was a beautiful day up here today there are plenty of days during the Winter in which I wish I lived where you do.

[Nathan Towne]

Will the news orgs call it for TRUMP the moment polls close?

Is it appearing that way at the moment? What tells you that he is so clearly winning?

[Nathan Towne]

In South Carolina, shabbat ends at 6:46 PM. Who came up with the idea that voting on Saturday until 7 PM is acceptable? Not that there are many Orthodox Jews in South Carolina afaik, but this still disenfranchises them.

I don't think there are many now, but South Carolina actually had the largest Jewish population of anywhere in the country until the 1830s; they were mostly Sephardim. Charleston has a pretty prominent place in American Jewish history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Charleston,_South_Carolina

Very interesting, thanks!

Yes, South Carolina (Charleston in particular) used to have an extremely large Jewish population relative to other states/cities. Judah Benjamin, for example, comes immediately to mind as someone who grew up in Charleston in the early 19th century.

[Nathan Towne]

Will the news orgs call it for TRUMP the moment polls close?

Is it appearing that way at the moment? What tells you that he is so clearly winning?

He has a double digit lead going into today, so it seems plausible to call the state for him the moment polls close.

Poll results have been closing heading into the election though, at least to some degree.

[Nathan Towne]

Shadow,

I see that you switched your endorsement over to Rubio.

[Nathan Towne]

If I decide to get more active politically where I live, it would be far more likely I'd do so in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party here.  In which case, it makes sense to have a record of voting in Democratic primaries.  If I did head out to vote tonight, it would be to vote for Kasich in hopes of pulling the GOP back towards sanity and while maybe the national GOP can be so pulled, the SCGOP is still too batguano crazy to really be reasoned with.

Then I would encourage you to go out and vote tonight being that you would vote for Kasich.

[Nathan Towne]

This was the right decision on Jeb Bush's part. There is no real reason for him to drag it out any longer. Ben Carson should probably pull the plug as well and unless Kasich can do very well in Nevada on the 23rd then there will not be any point in him continuing his campaign either.

[Nathan Towne]

This Trump frenzy is really incredible.

[Nathan Towne]

This is a pretty strong speech from Rubio tonight.