South Carolina Primary Results

You can see the final results here. the elections I am going to talk about have already been called, but final numbers are not in. If I mention any win percentages, I am talking about them as of 10:05 PM when 91% of the precincts are reporting.

Nikki Haley is leading the GOP gubernatorial pack with 49% of the vote. She did not get the 50.1% needed to avoid a run off, so she will face Gresham Barrett on June 22. He only mustered22% of the vote, so he may serve only as a inconvenience between Haley and the nomination. the question is whether Henry McMaster and Andre Bauer will see the writing on the wall and endorse Haley or if the good old boy network will stic together and line up behind Barrett.

Cynical me is inclined to think they will stand behind Barrett even though his vote total is rather embarrassing. Haley’s umbers are popular across the board, though. Barrett endorsements may not do much when it is all said and done.

Either Haley or Barrett will face Vincent Sheen in November. The former state senator easily won the democrat nod with 60% of the vote. Maye now we will find out who the heck he is.

I keep joking about the futility of being a Democrat in South Carolina, but it is true. There were a grand total of 168,517 votes cast in the Democrat primary and 384, 821 in the Republican.. Haley received more votes herself than all the Democrat gubernatorial candidates combined. While there are still rumors floating about Democrats crossed over to vote for Haley because they believe she is the weakest candidate, they are (a) wrong and (b) propping up a weak candidate of their own in Sheheen.

A short time ago, I expressed my incredulity at this poll which had unknown Democrat Vic Rawl trailing republican Jim DeMint by only 7 points. the above link breaks down my analysis of why the poll was dubious. not the least of those reasos was its democratic pollster origin.

Now we know not only were Democrats behind the poll, but the pollsters must have had Rawl as a client. Whether or not that is true, they failed miserably. Rawl's opponent, another relative unknown, Alvin Greene, by a large margin. Do not think too much of Greene's chances, either. DeMint has high approval ratings and just won the GOP primary by 83%.

But I will extend the promise i made in the previous post. it applied originally to Rawl, but I will extend it to Greene. If DeMint does not win in November by 15% or more, I will eat a fried earthworm.