Fox News Voter Analysis: Trump Bests Haley in Her Home State

Donald Trump completed a clean sweep of the first three Republican nominating contests by cruising to a 20-point victory over Nikki Haley in South Carolina. Haley, a native of the Palmetto State and a former governor, pledged to continue her presidential campaign through the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5th despite the loss.

The results of the Fox News Voter Analysis, a survey of more than 2,400 South Carolina Republican primary voters, show Trump’s dominance with the party base—as well as divides within the party that could affect both the remaining primaries and the general election.

South Carolina has an open primary, meaning any voter can choose to participate in either the Democratic or Republican primary, regardless of which party they typically support. Still, most voters (87%) considered themselves Republicans, and Trump won this group by 33 points—just as he did in New Hampshire (Trump +33 points).

Haley was buoyed by support from independents (+29 points) and Democrats (+88 points), though both made up relatively small portions of the primary electorate.

TRUMP WINS SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY AGAINST HALEY IN HER HOME STATE, MOVES CLOSER TO CLINCHING GOP NOMINATION

The ideological divides within the party were on full display. Haley won moderates by 26 points, essentially the same as her 25-point edge with moderates in the Granite State. Trump’s margin with self-described "somewhat conservative" voters was narrower than it was in New Hampshire (18 points vs. 25 points), as was his advantage among very conservative voters (+62 points vs. +67 points).

Nearly 6-in-10 voters (58%) considered themselves part of the Make America Great Again movement, and the vast majority of them went for Trump.

It was a different story