HILTON HEAD, S.C. — If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination for president, he will likely have to do it by storming across the South.
The billionaire’s support has softened in Iowa, and a skirmish in New Hampshire with an influential conservative newspaper could scramble the race. But in South Carolina, Trump remains rock solid — signaling a strength that would serve him well when voters in Southern states begin to vote in less than two months.
He's championing a strategy that melds a blend of economic populism with blunt rhetoric that resonates with voters across the region. Polls show him maintaining commanding leads in South Carolina, where Republicans will cast ballots on Feb. 20, as well as Georgia and other states that vote in the so-called "SEC primary" on March 1.
Trump is relying on the region like never before. Polls
Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in Iowa, where voters will caucus on Feb. 1. In New Hampshire, which holds its primary about a week later, establishment candidates are circling Trump after the publisher of the state’s
voters there were too smart to elect him.
Setbacks in either of those two states could threaten his campaign. But South Carolina, and the rest of the South, remain a bastion of support for Trump, and a showdown with Cruz — who sees the region and its conservative evangelical base as his firewall — seems inevitable.
About the Author
