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The South Carolina primary has been called and Trump is the clear winner, increasing the number of delegates he has won across the GOP primaries to 107.
Trump, the overall GOP frontrunner, won the state with 59.8 percent of the vote, according to The Associated Press. Haley, the state's former governor who is also a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, garnered 39.5 percent of the vote share.
"This is a little sooner than we anticipated," Trump said during his victory speech roughly 10 minutes after the polls closed. "And an even BIGGER WIN than we anticipated. I was just informed that we got double the number of votes that has ever been received in the great state of South Carolina so that's pretty good so it's a record times two."
Earlier this month, the GOP ballot option of "None of These Candidates," won the Nevada primary with 61.2 percent of the vote share. Haley placed second with 32.4 percent and Trump was not on the Nevada Republican primary ballot because of state rules.
Meanwhile, last month Trump won the GOP New Hampshire primary, in his second campaign success in primary season, with 54.5 percent of the vote, to Haley's 43.2 percent.
This followed the former president winning 51 percent of the vote in Iowa, securing the largest margin of any non-incumbent in the modern era as the Republican primary season kicked off.
He defeated Haley there too as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who both later dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
DeSantis had 21.2 percent of the votes and Haley came third with 19.1 percent.
This means Trump has sustained his lead, securing a total of 107 delegates in the states that have run primaries. Haley has won 17 delegates.
In the Republican primary, 1,215 out of the 2,429 delegates up for votes are needed to win the nomination. Often, states award delegates on a proportional basis based on the votes, or the overall winner takes all the available delegates in a state.
Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump and Haley by email to comment on this story.
Which Candidates Are Still in the Race?
Trump, Haley and pastor and businessman Ryan Binkley are the three remaining candidates in the race after a flurry of drop outs.
Ramaswamy dropped out of the race after the Iowa primaries and endorsed Trump in a post on X, formerly Twitter. He had won three delegates with 7.7 percent of the vote.
"So proud of our team. Press conference at 10:15 CT at Surety Hotel in Des Moines. We will livestream on X," Ramaswamy wrote on X.
In his live stream, Ramaswamy announced his support for Trump, adding that "we're gonna do the right thing for this country."
"As I've said since the beginning, there are two America first candidates in this race and I called Donald Trump to tell him that. I congratulated him on his victory and now going forward he will have my full endorsement for the presidency, and I think we're gonna do the right thing for this country," Ramaswamy said.
Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who has campaigned against Trump but had only been polling at 1 percent, according to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, also dropped out of the race the day after the Iowa vote.
"My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa," he said in a statement. "I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country's future."
DeSantis also dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump in a video posted to social media.
"I am today suspending my campaign," DeSantis said in his video, less than two days before the New Hampshire primary election. "I'm proud to have delivered on 100 percent of my promises and I will not stop now."
"It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters wanna give Donald Trump another chance. They've watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance and they see Democrats use lawfare to this day to attack him," he added.
When Is the Next Republican Primary?
The next votes will take place on Super Tuesday, on March 5, when 16 states and territories will case their ballots on the same day.
In the Republican primaries as a whole, Trump is projected to win 76.7 percent of the vote share while Haley is on 15.6 percent, according to the latest data from polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight.
Primary votes will then continue until June, when the GOP will then choose its candidate to stand in the 2024 election.
About the writer
Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and ... Read more