COLUMBIA, S.C. — President Donald Trump has won South Carolina, topping former Vice-President Joe Biden as the reliably Republican state went for the GOP again.
The Associated Press called the race just before 8 p.m. Eastern. Much of the vote had not finished coming in.
The two were vying for the state’s 9 electoral votes that goes to the winner of the state. We have the latest live race results all night long here.
History was in the President's favor in the race. No Democrat has carried South Carolina since 1976, when then President Jimmy Carter captured the state. A Democrat has also not won a statewide election of any kind in the state since 2006.
In 2016, President Trump won South Carolina by 14 percentage points in his win over Hillary Clinton. Because of the that one-side history, neither campaign targeted the state with campaign stops of heavy buys of advertising.
The Biden campaign, however, was hoping that a potential record turnout may change some of that history. They were also thinking that the high national attention paid to the Lindsey Graham-Jaime Harrison Senate race might bring out voters who would normally sit out elections.
But Trump has proven popular in the state and has strong ties with the state’s most powerful politicians. In February of 2016, Henry McMaster, who’s now the state’s governor, broke with many in his party and endorsed Trump in the state’s primary. It was the first major politician to sign off on Trump, and later that month, Trump easily carried the state. The two have maintained a cordial relationship since then, with McMaster having visited the White House several times and Trump coming down to the state to campaign for McMaster during his 2018 run for the governorship.
Trump also is closely allied with Graham, who started out as a sharp critic of the President but later became one of his staunchest allies. And Trump appointed Nikki Haley, the state’s former governor, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Biden, on the other hand, has had a long relationship with Rep. James Clyburn, the third highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House who’s been in Congress since 1993. Clyburn’s endorsement during this year’s primary was seen as critical to Biden getting a blowout win in the state, which triggered a domino effect that propelled him to his party’s nomination.
