Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are competing in the Republican primaries for the presidential election in the United States Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images/AFP
Donald Trump hopes to win the Republican primary (24) this Saturday in South Carolina, Nikki Haley's home state, by a wide margin, a crucial phase in the party's race to become a candidate for the White House.
“We need your VOICE to save the United States,” the former president said, mobilizing voters in the country's southeastern state.
Despite his problems with the justice system, 77yearold Donald Trump is the heavy favorite in the race for the Republican nomination, which will name the candidate for the November presidential election.
The businessman won the three primaries already organized by the party and several opponents withdrew from the dispute.
Nikki Haley, 52, is the only one standing in Trump's way.
She also urged voters to turn out in droves. “Everyone needs to vote,” she said, believing that “a new generation of conservative leaders” was needed.
“Disgusting”
Haley's premise is simple: “We will not survive four more years of Trump chaos.”
This Saturday a new controversy arose.
Trump has suggested that his legal troubles are drawing sympathy for his candidacy among African Americans.
“Black people like me a lot because they’ve been hurt and discriminated against a lot of times, and they actually see me as being discriminated against,” he said.
Haley called those comments “disgusting.”
“It is disgusting. But that's what happens when it comes from the teleprompter. This is the chaos that awaits Donald Trump,” he said at a polling station.
Democrats were also shocked by the speech, as African Americans were compared to criminality.
After Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, the Republicans will face off in South Carolina, the state where Nikki Haley was governor for six years.
This Saturday will show whether she has a chance of winning, polls show that she is almost 30 points behind Donald Trump.
Married couple Jeff and Susan Stottler each voted for a candidate, leading to “jokes.”
He chose the former president. “I trust that Donald Trump will undo everything Joe Biden has done to get us into the economic and immigration crisis we are in,” the 61yearold banker said.
His wife, 60, chose Haley even though she believes her rival will win.
“I’m prepared for a woman (in the presidency) and a different perspective,” she said. “By voting for her, I hope you will choose her as your vice president.”
Tens of thousands of voters have opted for early voting in the past few days.
The first results will be announced at 7 p.m. local time (9 p.m. Brazil time).
“Great Tuesday”
There's a lot at stake in this Saturday's primary election.
“If Trump can defeat former Gov. Nikki Haley in his home state, he would likely be a nearcertain candidate for the Republican Party nomination,” said David Darmofal, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina.
Despite the difficulties, Haley ruled out the possibility of dropping out of the race after the South Carolina primary because “that would be the easy way out.”
After Saturday's primary, Trump and Haley are expected to face off again in Michigan on Tuesday.
Republicans in Idaho and Missouri will vote on March 2, two days before voters in North Dakota. However, the most important date in the American political calendar is March 5, when the famous Super Tuesday takes place.
That day, voters from 15 states, including Texas, California, Colorado and Virginia, will go to the polls for the big day of the primaries.
Theoretically, the primaries could last until July, but Donald Trump's team predicts a victory by March 19 at the latest.
Trump wants to start campaigning as quickly as possible for his rematch against Joe Biden, the Democratic president running for reelection, before diving into a series of trials that will force him to alternate between rallies and court proceedings.
The first criminal trial against Trump begins on March 25th.
(AFP)
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