Republican race heads south
\nThe candidates largely swapped only glancing blows in the early nominating contests
\nCHARLESTON
\nDonald Trump and Nikki Haley go head-to-head Saturday in South Carolina\u2019s Republican primary, with the ex-president expected to trounce his former charge in her home state as he closes in on the nomination.
\nHaley was a popular governor of the Palmetto State for six years before becoming Trump\u2019s UN ambassador in 2017, but her old boss is backed by the party establishment and nearly two-thirds of voters in opinion polling.
\nThe candidates largely swapped only glancing blows in the early nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire in January, but the rhetorical artillery fire has intensified since the primary narrowed into a two-horse race.
\n\u201cTomorrow you will cast one of the most important votes of your entire life and \u2014 honestly \u2014 we\u2019re not very worried about tomorrow,\u201d a nonchalant Trump told an election-eve rally in the city of Rock Hill.
\nSeeking to demonstrate that he was already looking beyond Haley, he vowed to show President Joe Biden and the Democrats \u201cthat we are coming like a freight train in November,\u201d when the general election will be held.
\nSouth Carolinians do not have to indicate party allegiance when they register to vote, and are allowed to have their say in either the Democratic or the Republican primary.
\nHaley \u2014 a more traditional conservative who espouses limited government and a muscular foreign policy \u2014 will rely on votes from moderates, although the tactic did little for her as she lost to Trump in each of the first four nominating contests.
\nVoters interviewed by AFP in South Carolina capital Columbia on Thursday were complimentary about both candidates, although one voter felt Haley wasn\u2019t ready for the highest office and another criticized Trump for being \u201cdivisive.\u201d
\n\u201cHe\u2019ll go after people that don\u2019t agree with him. Being a Christian, I don\u2019t feel good about that,\u201d said financial adviser and Haley voter David Gilliam, 55.
\nThe primary comes amid signs that the frontrunner \u2014 who faces four criminal indictments \u2014 is tightening his hold over the party as he pushes for a reshuffle to install family members and allies at the top of the Republican National Committee .
\nHis daughter-in-law Lara Trump has promised to spend \u201cevery single penny\u201d of party funds on his presidential campaign should she become an RNC cochair, and has argued that paying his legal bills is of \u201cbig interest\u201d to Republican voters.
\nHaley has sought to focus on the \u201cchaos\u201d that she says follows Trump, pointing to $8 million in campaign donations he spent on legal fees in January and predicting that his total outlay on court cases this year could top $100 million.
\n\u201cHe has turned his presidential campaign into a legal defense slush fund and will not have the resources or focus to go up against Joe Biden and the Democrats,\u201d said Haley national spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas.
\nIn common with Democrats, Haley has also been hitting Trump over his outlook on the international stage and oft-voiced admiration for the leaders of the world\u2019s most authoritarian regimes.
\nShe has blasted Trump\u2019s reaction to the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny \u2014 in which he avoided criticism of President Vladimir Putin \u2014 and his threat to encourage Moscow to attack NATO nations that had not met their financial obligations.
\nBut Haley\u2019s central argument for months has been that polling shows her performing better than Trump in hypothetical matchups with Biden.
\nShe has vowed to compete in the Republican primary through \u201cSuper Tuesday\u201d \u2014 when multiple states vote on March 5 \u2014 regardless of what happens in South Carolina on Saturday.
\nReproductive rights are likely to figure prominently in the election, with Trump avoiding taking a clear position on proposals for a nationwide abortion ban after appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped gut federal protections.
\nA wrinkle was added when Alabama\u2019s supreme court ruled last week that frozen embryos can be considered children, signaling a new front in the debate and posing questions for in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics.
\nTrump \u2014 keenly aware the Alabama decision risks alienating moderate and women voters \u2014 voiced support Friday for preserving access to IVF programs, calling on the state\u2019s legislature to \u201cact quickly to find an immediate solution\u201d to ensure it remained available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Republican race heads south The candidates largely swapped only glancing blows in the early nominating contests CHARLESTON Donald Trump and Nikki Haley go head-to-head Saturday in South Carolina\u2019s Republican primary, with the ex-president expected to trounce his former charge in her home state as he closes in on the nomination. Haley was a popular governor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-389465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n