No February surprise materialized in last Saturday’s Republican presidential primary to catapult former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley to victory over frontrunner and former President Donald Trump.
Despite various efforts to get Democrats and independents to cast ballots in the GOP primary through South Carolina’s open primary system, these voters mostly stayed home, as tepid about the Feb. 24 primary as they were about the Feb. 3 Democratic primary.
In the GOP battle between Haley and Trump, it’s pretty easy to see there was no crossover voting influence of any significance. About the same number of primary voters went to the polls this year (755,000) as during the last competitive Republican presidential primary in 2016 where 740,000 voters cast ballots.
Nevertheless, some Republican poobahs continue to lament and spread fear about non-Republican infiltration of “their primary,” despite no real evidence of its happening. State GOP Chair Drew McKissick continues to push for a closed primary system to require registration by party. Under this scheme, registered Democrats would only vote in Democratic primaries.
Registered Republicans would only vote in GOP primaries. And independents? They’d have to wait until the general election and be left out of a process in which they can now participate through the open primary system.
Fortunately, a Republican-backed House bill is stalled in committee — probably because there’s one guy who doesn’t like it and is talking common sense on the whole non-issue — Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who happens to be his party’s former state chairman and who can veto the bill.
“Although people have theorized that there may be masses coming over and voting in the Republican primary just to cause mischief, so far in our history, it has not happened,” McMaster said recently.
He sees any move toward a closed primary to be an “unnecessary impediment” to the voting process. “If you close those primaries, that’s just one more thing that everybody has to register for and maybe carry a card.
We think that an inviting party is better.”
He’s right on target.
Meanwhile in the Feb. 24 primary, Trump underperformed slightly, garnering 60% of the vote when polls showed him expected to get about two-thirds. Haley got almost 300,000 votes — about 40% — and vows to stay in the race as Trump’s legal and various political problems grow.
Who knows what’s going to happen by November? But one thing is sure — it would be way better for Haley to be the GOP nominee than the conflicted, narcissistic, friend-of-Russia Trump. While Haley didn’t win her home state, we hope she stays in the hunt for convention delegates in case she’s needed if Trump falls from grace.
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