A similar result played out in 2016 when Trump defeated a fractured,multi-party field of candidates that included senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio,former Florida governor Jeb Bush and moderate Republican John Kasich.
Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott hugs his mother Frances Scott after announcing his candidacy for president on the campus of Charleston Southern University in South Carolina.Credit:AP
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After winning the nomination,Trump went on to defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election. He won despite the former secretary of state winning the popular vote,thanks to the quirks ofAmerica’s electoral college system.
Speaking at a forum over the weekend,Clinton warned that while she didn’t believe Trump could beat President Joe Biden in a general election,“the electoral college is always a difficult outcome to predict”.
Asked what might happen if Trump became president again,she replied:“It would be the end of democracy in the United States”.
Nikki Haley greets supporters in South Carolina in February.Credit:AP
“The list of potential disastrous outcomes is longer than I have time to go over,” Clinton told the audience at theFinancial Times Weekend Festival in Washington DC.
“It’s why we can’t permit it to happen and why any sensible person who looks at that former president and says:“Oh,let’s do this again” needs an intervention – because he’s only gotten worse.”
Tim Scott’s announcement once again puts the focus on South Carolina,the heavily black state that helped secure Biden’s presidential nomination in 2020.
But his message often irks Democrats because it goes against the view that America has been a land of oppression for black and brown people.
“Our party and our nation are standing at a time for choosing:Victimhood or victory?” he told a packed audience at Charleston Southern University on Monday.
“Grievance or greatness? I choose freedom and hope and opportunity.”
Scott was elected to Congress in 2010 but was nominated to run for the Senate two years later by Haley,another South Carolina local vying for the Republican nomination.
As the first black Republican from South Carolina to serve in the Senate,Scott championed so-called Opportunity Zones,which incentivise private investment in the poorest communities,and was instrumental in a bill that made lynching a federal hate crime after George Floyd’s murder.
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has warned about a Trump victory in 2024.Credit:Farrah Tomazin
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“I’m the candidate the far left fears the most,” Scott said. “I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control.”
The senator has also amassed a massive $US22 million ($33 million) war chest for his campaign. However,whether it will help in the expected race against Trump and his main rival DeSantis is yet to be seen.
According to the latest figures fromRealClearPolitics,the former president has a commanding lead of 56.6 per cent against his Republican primary rivals. DeSantis,having not yet formally declared,has 19.4 per cent of the vote;Haley has 4.3 per cent and Scott has less than 2 per cent.
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