However, supporters who came out to vote for her hoped that she would at least stay in the race long enough to close the gap with the former president, and continue to be a voice for conservatives who disagree with Trump's views.
Marianne Belsey said she voted for Haley because she feels “strongly about women being represented in our government and I feel strongly about what she represents for the future of our country.”
“I want her to stay involved and continue to be the voice that gets people to answer for some of their past behaviors and the positions they take moving forward,” she said.
Republican presidential candidate and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley arrives to vote with her mother, Raj Kaur Randhawa, and her family.credit: AP
Another voter, Joel, did not want to use his surname, explaining that “things are sensitive enough” in the United States when it comes to supporters and opponents of Trump.
He added that he also voted for Haley, in part because she was a good governor of South Carolina — the job she held before Trump appointed her to be his ambassador to the United Nations — “but the deeper motive is to prevent Trump from destroying Western civilization.” .
When asked to explain the former president's popularity, Joel shrugged and shook his head.
“It's as if voodoo blindness has infected the otherwise sane people I know, and I don't understand it,” he said.
Others, like James Slavagna, said he supports Trump because he believes “the streets will be safer and cleaner” and “there will be more jobs and infrastructure” if the former president returns to office.
Haley supporter Marianne Belsey says she supports the former UN ambassador's bid for the White House because of what she represents for America's future.credit: Farah Tomazin
“We have an office now that is an embarrassment to the country,” he said of the Biden administration.
This primary race comes weeks after Joe Biden won the Democratic race in South Carolina by a landslide, in the absence of any serious competitors. However, that contest was marred by extremely low turnout, with only about 131,000 South Carolinians voting, making up about 4 percent of registered voters statewide.
Joe Biden on the campaign trail in Charleston, South Carolina.credit: AP
The crowds appeared much longer at many polling places for the Republican race, in which any registered voter can participate, as long as they have not voted earlier in the Biden primary.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, who endorsed Trump, said it was possible that Democrats could use the state's “open primary” system to “cause harm” by voting for Haley to thwart the former president's momentum.
“We will see if that happens today,” he said while casting his vote at a polling station a few kilometers from the presidential headquarters.
Trump began the day with a more than hour-long speech in Washington, D.C., at the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, where he mocked Biden's mental acuity, talked about his immigration plan to implement the largest mass deportation program in history, and described himself as a proud political opponent.
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“I've been charged more than Alphonse Capone!” He told the crowd. “This gang of thugs accused me four times for no reason. Or as I say out of respect for people from foreign countries, out of bullshit.”
He will head to South Carolina later today for an Election Night watch party in Columbia, while Haley's watch party will be in Charleston.
