By Seanna Adcox
Former President Donald Trump is returning to South Carolina this weekend for a “Get Out the Vote” rally in Conway.
It’s Trump’s first visit to the state since he and Gov. Henry McMaster walked onto the field together at the start of halftime during the Palmetto Bowl in November.
McMaster, an early backer of Trump, will be at the Conway rally, along with Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, said his spokesman, Brandon Charochak.
Trump’s long list of supporters among South Carolina’s elected officials include U.S. Rep. Russell Fry of Horry County, who in 2022 ousted the 7th District Republican who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 1, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The only Republican in South Carolina’s congressional delegation to back Haley is U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman of Rock Hill.
The event Saturday at Coastal Carolina University is two weeks before South Carolina’s GOP presidential primary, where the former president is looking to crush former Gov. Nikki Haley at home. Early voting for the Feb. 24 contest starts Monday.
Polling shows Haley trailing her former boss by roughly 30 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup in South Carolina. But Haley, Trump’s first United Nations ambassador, has refused calls to step down, telling supporters she can still win.
She touts her candidacy as the only thing standing in the way of a rematch most voters don’t want between two geriatric presidents: 81-year-old Joe Biden, who’s already the nation’s oldest president ever in office, and 77-year-old Trump.
Trump’s rally comes a week after Haley appeared on Saturday Night Live, where she asked an actor playing Trump why he won’t debate her and suggested that he take a mental competency test.
She insists she will carry on no matter the results in South Carolina, as her schedule backs up. She will be in Los Angeles on Wednesday to campaign in a state that’s among 15 voting March 5, dubbed Super Tuesday.
Trump’s South Carolina rally is in extremely friendly territory.
Horry County voters picked Trump two-to-one over Biden in 2020. In the 2016 GOP presidential primary, Trump took nearly half of Horry County’s votes in the six-way contest, more than 30 percentage points over second-place finisher Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who Haley backed.
Tickets to the event at Coastal Carolina’s student recreation center are available online on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the campaign announcement late Monday.
The HTC Center can accommodate more than 3,600 fans, according to the college website.
Seanna Adcox is a South Carolina native with three decades of reporting experience. She joined States Newsroom in September 2023 after covering the S.C. Legislature and state politics for 18 years. Her previous employers include The Post and Courier and The Associated Press.
