South Carolina GOP boss expects Trump to have 4-0 record after his state's primary, cautions Haley

The chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party tells Just the News he expects Donald Trump to emerge from his state's primary later this month with a perfect 4-0 record to start the 2024 election season, and he is cautioning Nikki Haley she soon will have to weigh whether staying in the race will alienate voters.

Drew McKissick, who also serves as Republican National Committee co-chairman, said he believes recent polling showing Trump up at least 26 points in his state on Haley, a former South Carolina governor, will hold true when GOP voters go to the polls on Feb. 24.

Trump has already won the opening contests in Iowa and New Hampshire by double digits and is assured of winning Nevada since he is the lone candidate on the GOP ballot for the caucuses that will award that state's delegates later this week.

"Well, you know, I think what we've seen so far, is that the polls had been fairly accurate," McKissick said during an interview on the Just the News, No Noise television show. "...When you look at the polls down here, just based on, you know, anecdotal evidence and conversations I've had organization I've seen on the ground, you know, again, I think the polls have been fairly accurate, and it would not shock me to see that those to be accurate again."

McKissick said Haley is running out of time.

"You have to wonder at a certain point, is this a play for four years from now? That's, you know, basically trying to build up a support for that. Or is it, you know, they want to continue now. They think they have a shot. I mean, at some point, this is about delegates. I mean, the end of the day, you don't become the nominee unless you win a majority of the delegates to the convention.

"And after this week Donald Trump will be 3-0 as far as the contests relating to delegates. He will win all the delegates over in Nevada. And then we've got South Carolina where the winner takes all from here. You get one more vote than anybody else and win all 50 of our delegates," he added. "You know, it looks like he will be 4-0 most likely after South Carolina."

McKissick said Haley will soon have to weigh the consequences of staying in the race against such long odds, especially if she loses her home state.

"It makes things impractical. And that's the question they're going to have to deal with: how far do they go and potentially risk maybe alienating voters that they might like to speak to four years from now?There's gonna be another campaign in the future. So that's a question they're gonna have to deal with fairly soon."

McKissick said he also expects the RNC will face changes after the South Carolina primary should Trump win. The RNC chief of staff Mike Reed announced Tuesday he will be stepping down next month and reports also surfaced that Ronna McDaniel will resign as chairwoman later this months as well, clearing the way for Trump's team to install its own team at the RNC for the general election.

"I believe the point has been put out there that we'll address this more directly after the South Carolina primary. So I expect to see that," McKissick said. "And I expect to see a strong national unified organization, which quite frankly is what we're going to need to beat an incumbent president."