GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Today's Republican confab here, where 11 – oops, make that 10 – GOP presidential hopefuls will speak, comes just two days after the marathon debate in California that saw former CEO Carly Fiorina shine, Donald Trump be Donald Trump and on and on.
Each candidate will have goals to meet at the forum, sponsored by Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation. Speeches are expected to start shortly after 4 p.m.
Scott Huffmon, political scientist at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., said today could be critical for several candidates. Here’s what he said about several of them:
Jeb Bush: “Bush needs an assertive performance.”
Marco Rubio: “Rubio needs to capitalize on his surprisingly good debate performance.
Ben Carson: “Carson mainly needs to hold steady, but if he could ‘amp up’ his performance just a little, it would help him greatly.”
Scott Walker: “Walker needs to re-assert his relevance, and anti-union South Carolina is just the place to do it.”
Rand Paul: “Paul needs to remind the S.C. Tea Party why they liked him.”
Carly Fiorina: “Fiorina can capitalize on her impassioned anti-abortion statements from the debate (which inaccurately described the Planned Parenthood videos) by touching a nerve with evangelical Upstate conservatives.”
Chris Christie: “Christie has a tough time with S.C. voters. He needs a good performance.”
Ted Cruz: “Cruz needs to be less ‘practiced’ and use his evangelicalism to reach out to evangelic voters. Evangelicals aren't as enamored of Trump as other Republican voters, so they could be the way for someone to overtake him, BUT only if a candidate overcomes their disengagement and gets them to the polls AND they coalesce behind one candidate and aren't spread out among several ‘non-Trumps.’”
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