A new Winthrop University poll in South Carolina has former president Donald Trump crushing his two home state rivals, as well as Ron DeSantis. Although he is under 50%, so some of his challengers could add a mildly hopeful spin.
Trump sits on top with 41%, while Ron DeSantis nets 20%. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, already announced, nets 18%, while South Carolina Senator Tim Scott is at a dismal 7%.
The poll makes for excellent timing of Tim Scott’s inevitable entry into the race. He announced that he is thinking of announcing for president with an official exploratory committee. He’s over abundance of caution had him release an exploratory campaign video, which technically, is different than a presidential announcement video. Why the guy just doesn’t say he is running for president is beyond me. With an exploratory committee, he can now openly do things a candidate would do like raise money for a presidential race. Almost all candidates who form an exploratory committee end up announcing around a week later, but some end up not running. Expect Tim Scott to be all in, however.
His lack of commitment to the race, dancing around the issue, will likely have him viewed as just another consultant created politician. Not a great first impression. He’ll be visiting Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire this week, expect him to make an official announcement in one of those states.
Scott doesn’t bring much new to the table. He does represent a new face of the GOP, but Haley already has that lane, and it’s not a winning one at the moment. He also has deflected direct criticism of Trump, while Haley has only tepidly done so through her campaign manager.
Who knows, announced candidate Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson may gains some steam as the only one with guts to criticize the former president. While there might not be much to criticize Trump on, why even run if you’re not going to highlight any differences?
Here’s to Donald Trump and Asa Hutchinson, the only non robot, non-consultant obsessed candidates in the race.
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