Trump enters South Carolina's primary to challenge Haley in her home

Former President Donald Trump is looking to win his fourth straight primary state over Nikki Haley in South Carolina, aiming to hand a home-state embarrassment to his last remaining major rival for the Republican nomination.

Trump went into Saturday's primary with a huge polling lead and the backing of the state's top Republicans, including Sen. Tim Scott, a former rival in the race. Haley, who served as UN ambassador under Trump, has spent weeks crisscrossing the state that twice elected her governor warning that the dominant front-runner, who is 77 and faces four indictments, is too old and distracted to be president again.

As Haley voted at her polling place on Kiawah Island, the private residential community where she lives, she said she faced the day with “great gratitude.” Haley pressed her argument that she is the alternative to “the two most disliked politicians in America” in Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden.

“There is a choice,” Haley said, speaking alongside her children and mother. ”We can leave the drama and the chaos, and we can leave the incompetence, and we can go to something that is normal.”

Trump, who held a rally and addressed Black conservatives at a gala Friday, was in Maryland for an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday before returning to South Carolina. His campaign issued a statement saying Haley was “no longer living in reality.”

“The primary ends tonigh t and it is time to turn to the general election,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement released as voting was underway.

“I did support her when she was governor. She’s done some good things,” Davis Paul, 36, said as he waited for Trump at a recent rally in Conway. “But I just don’t think she’s ready to tackle a candidate like Trump. I don’t think many people can.”

Trump draws larger crowds

Trump has swept into the state for a handful of large rallies in between fundraisers and events in other states, including Michigan, which holds its GOP primary Tuesday.

He has drawn much larger crowds and campaigned with Gov. Henry McMaster, who succeeded Haley, and Scott, who was elevated to the Senate by Haley.

Speaking Friday in Rock Hill, Trump accused Haley of staying in the race to hurt him at the behest of Democratic donors.

“All she's trying to do is inflict pain on us so they can win in November,” he said. “We're not going to let that happen.”

After one of Haley’s events, Terry Sullivan, a US Navy veteran who lives in Hopkins, said he had planned to support Trump but changed his mind after hearing Haley's critique of his NATO comments.

“One country can say whatever it wants, but when you have an agreement, among other nations, we should join the agreements of other nations, not just off on our own,” Sullivan said. “After listening to Nikki, I think I’m a Nikki supporter now.”

Haley has made an indirect appeal to Democrats who in large numbers sat out their own presidential primary earlier this month, adding into her stump speech a line that “anybody can vote in this primary as long as they didn’t vote in the Feb. 3 Democrat primary.”

Some of those voters have been showing up at her events, saying that although they planned to vote for Biden in the general election, they planned to cross over to the GOP primary on Saturday as a way to oppose Trump now.

In any other campaign cycle, a home state loss might be detrimental to a campaign. In 2016, Sen. Marco Rubio dropped out shortly after losing Florida in a blowout to Trump, after his campaign argued the political winds would shift in his favor once the campaign moved to his home state.

And Haley's campaign can’t name a state in which they feel she will be victorious over Trump.

But in a speech this past week in Greenville, Haley said she would stay in the campaign “until the last person votes,” arguing that those whose contests come after the early primaries and caucuses deserved the right to have a choice between candidates.

Haley also used that speech — which many had assumed was an announcement she was shuttering her campaign — to argue that she feels “no need to kiss the ring,” as others had, possibly with prospects of serving as Trump's running mate in mind.

“I have no fear of Trump’s retribution,” Haley reiterated. “I’m not looking for anything from him. My own political future is of zero concern.”