President Donald Trump’s effort to bend the Republican Party to his will faces its next test Tuesday, when South Carolina voters choose between two GOP gubernatorial candidates who both claim to be Trump acolytes.
The president has already made his pick: incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster, a longtime Trump supporter who failed to win the GOP primary outright earlier this month. McMaster is waging a runoff campaign against businessman John Warren, a first-time politico who some see as more like Trump himself.
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“He’s a man of action,” McMaster said at the time. “He speaks in words that everybody understands. It’s a delightful thing to see.”That support marked a significant divide between McMaster and then-Gov. Nikki Haley, who had been vocal in her opposition to some of Trump’s rhetoric, including a temporary ban on immigrants from some Muslim countries. Haley backed Marco Rubio and then Ted Cruz, only settling on Trump when he became the GOP nominee.Just weeks after his election, Trump selected Haley __ seen as a rising GOP star __ as his ambassador to the United Nations. Her departure cleared the way for McMaster in early 2017 to ascend to the governorship he had sought since losing a bruising primary to none other than Haley seven years earlier.READ MORE: Trump calls on Canada to increase NATO spending ahead of summitNow seeking his first full term on his own merit, McMaster is running as an incumbent, pointing toward his efforts to boost South Carolina’s economy by growing jobs and proposing tax cuts. McMaster has also used the power of his office to show Trump loyalists he and the president are similarly aligned, directing state agencies not to allocate public money to health care providers affiliated with abortion clinics. He also called for a law requiring municipalities to certify they’re not so-called “sanctuary cities,” a measure decried by some as political pandering intended to boost McMaster’s campaign, given that the issue has not been a problem in the state.Warren, meanwhile, has positioned himself as the candidate who, despite Trump’s actual backing of another candidate in this race, is the choice who more embodies the president himself. Like Trump, he’s made millions in business, able to nearly self-fund his entire campaign. And like Trump, he’s never before been directly involved in politics, spending his time in the private sector.But Huffmon, the Winthrop University professor, said Warren will have to find a way to harness the Trump-like energy in his own way if he’s to be successful.“If Warren can bring some new people in and both convince Trump supporters he is more Trump-like, and get a few disaffected, moderate conservatives who don’t want to pick the guy Trump’s endorsing, … he can pull that off,” he said.
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