7:00 PM ET, February 24, 2024
Voting is closing across South Carolina.Here's what you need to know about the Republican primary
From CNN's Zachary B. Wolf and Ethan Coen
Voting currently closes across South Carolina at 7 p.m. ET. Here are the important things to know about your state's primary.
candidate: Leading candidates include former President Donald Trump, who is the frontrunner to win the Republican nomination for the third consecutive presidential election. His biggest rival is former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who also served as ambassador to the United Nations during part of Trump's presidential term.
If Trump wins South Carolina, will the primary be over? Technically not. Trump or anyone else will ultimately need 1,215 delegates to secure the Republican nomination. Just 50 delegates are at stake in South Carolina. Heading into the South Carolina primary, Trump leads with 63 delegates to Haley's 17. In other words, we still have a long way to go. Super His Tuesday on March 5th will attract the largest number of participants.
What are the state's demographics? As of the 2020 census, the state's population was about 62% white, about a quarter black, and about 7% Hispanic. However, Republican primary voters are overwhelmingly white. When Trump won the South Carolina primary in 2016 with more than 32% of the vote, only about 1% of Republican primary voters were black.
