Former President Donald Trump, who is also running for president in 2024, traveled to rural South Carolina on Saturday in a show of force intended to cement his standing at the top of the polls in the early primary state.
The rally, his first since his federal indictment in June on numerous charges connected to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office where he ultimately plead not guilty, comes as he has begun consolidating support in the other early primary states of New Hampshire and Iowa, where opponents like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have recently been unable to gain momentum in the polls.
He arguably could not have picked a better site. Pickens, a small city nestled in the Appalachian foothills, is a well-known Republican stronghold, with nearly three-quarters of the county's population voting for Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
And coming into town, it was clear his appeal was still strong. Tents selling bumper stickers, hats and other memorabilia lined the highway for days ahead of the rally. Flags harkening to campaigns past and present hung from front porches. A local animal hospital along the highway pledged to make your pets "great again" on a sign out front. Hours before the rally, seemingly every inch of blacktop along the sleepy city's main drag was choked with supporters, some of whom wore buttons and memorabilia dating back to his commanding, double-digit victory in the state's 2016 primary.
Even though Trump maintains a near-20 point lead against DeSantis according to recent polling in the state, South Carolina is also among his weakest states. Despite polling around 50 percent nationwide, consecutive polls by National Public Affairs and Winthrop University show Trump polling in the state at or even below 41 percent, suggesting opportunities exist for several members of the GOP field to dig into his support.
Former South Carolina Lieutenant Governor André Bauer, his former ambassador to Belize, compared nominating anyone else to calling up a walk-on football player to fill in for Tom Brady in the Super Bowl.
Senator Tim Scott—who hails from North Charleston—drew 10 percent in that National Public Affairs poll, while Nikki Haley, the state's former governor, drew 12 percent. And while some, like South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and South Carolina's senior senator, Lindsey Graham, have already lent him their endorsement, Trump has so far struggled to solidify key endorsements in the state early on, leaving room for others to gain on him in the months before Palmetto State Republicans go to the polls in February.
For those in-attendance on Saturday, however, support for Trump was less a question of viability than loyalty.
"I'm a loyal person," Tammy McManis, a Pickens resident, told Newsweek in an interview ahead of the rally. "I believe in loyalty. And I believe that he did the job that he was put in office to do."
Others believe only Trump can see through the course he set the current Republican Party on nearly a decade earlier.
"He's a proven entity," Marilee Walmer, a Greenville resident, told Newsweek on Saturday. "The others say what they're gonna do. But at best, for example, with Ron DeSantis, what he wants to do is everything that Trump's already done. We don't have proof of it. The Floridians love him. But I don't know him because I'm not from Florida. But I do know Trump, and I also know how that he has so many people gunning for him, just to keep him out of the race."
However, Trump has also been plagued by questions about his viability in a rematch against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in a national election and has weathered attacks from figures like DeSantis both for his legal troubles and his alleged failures to deliver campaign promises like completing a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Several weeks ago, DeSantis' campaign announced a list of more than a dozen state lawmakers in South Carolina, with some—like Spartanburg-area state Senator Josh Kimbrell—describing DeSantis as "the only candidate in this race who can defeat" Biden next November.
Walmer, and others Newsweek interviewed, admitted they had concerns about Trump's ability to win again, ultimately saying they will ultimately do whatever it takes to defeat Biden in 2024.
But even then, candidates like DeSantis, others claimed, could have potentially cost them the ability to secure a majority of the GOP, particularly following Trump's attacks on DeSantis for considering policies like cutting funding to programs like Medicare. Eddie Chapman, an Easley resident, told Newsweek on Saturday that while he would consider supporting another candidate, DeSantis' position on Medicare could potentially cost him his vote, and keep him squarely in Trump's camp.
"That's gonna make a big difference in where I go, whichever direction I go with," he said.
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