With more than 90 percent of ballots processed, the former president has 60 percent of the vote to Haley’s 39.3 percent, CNN reported.
With this victory, Trump appears to be getting closer to securing the Republican presidential nomination, despite facing numerous criminal charges and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.
A politician can gather the votes necessary for his nomination (1,215 delegates) in mid-March. In several states, primaries will be held on a winner-take-all basis on Super Tuesday, March 5, NBC News reminds. “There has never been such a winning spirit,” Trump said. “I’ve never seen the Republican Party so united.”
Haley’s loss in her home state, where she was governor, was the biggest blow of the campaign. Haley has positioned herself as a much younger candidate with the physical and mental strength that she says Trump lacks in her older years. However, exit polls before the primary showed that 38 percent of GOP primary voters believe that only Trump has the physical and mental strength necessary to be president, while only 26 percent said that Haley has those qualities.
Still, Haley has made clear that a loss in her home state won’t force her out of the race anytime soon, and she has vowed to wage a “victory campaign” in the March 5 primary. She has already planned a multi-state trip starting on February 25.
