Since 1980, the winner of South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary has gone on to win the GOP presidential nomination. That means the stakes are particularly high tonight, and the conventional wisdom that Mitt Romney is his party’s inevitable nominee could be shattered in a matter of hours.
Join as we liveblog the day’s proceedings, and make sure to refresh this page for the latest. And don’t forget to head over to The Fix where Chris Cillizza, Aaron Blake and Rachel Weiner will also be hosting a live chat with readers as tonight’s results roll in.
2:51 p.m. | Voter turnout mixed amid South Carolina stormsThe South Carolina State Election commission has posted anecdotal voter turnout reports for counties across the Palmetto State, where thunderstorms have made for a soggy election day. We checked in on the counties that might offer an indication of how the primary will end up (according to our friends at The Fix), and reports were mixed:
• Beaufort - no reports
• Greenville - “Heavy in precincts where expected (traditionally heavy Republican precincts)”
• Horry - no reports
• Lexington - “Mostly light, but steady in some precincts”
• York -“Some precincts heavier than 2008, 18-20% at 1:30 p.m., others have been moderate”
Check out The Fix’s full list of five counties to watch in the South Carolina primary.
1:20 p.m., Sullivan's Island, S.C. | 'I think we've reached a point where we need someone who's mean'At Sunrise Presbyterian Church in Sullivan’s Island, S.C., Jean and husband Harold Wade both said they liked Mitt Romney but thought Newt Gingrich would make a better match against President Obama and didn’t want to see the race end after South Carolina.
“I want to keep things going for a bit,” said Jean Wade, 82. “There’s more that needs to be said. ... I don’t know that Newt can sustain this. But while he’s in it, there’s going to be a lot more that gets said and a lot more explained about why Republicans are different than what we’ve got.”
“I think Mitt Romney is a good man,” said Harold Wade, 85, who retired from a landscaping business he owned. “But I think we’ve reached a point where we need someone who’s mean.”
“What we need is someone who’s got some brains,” he added, explaining his support for Newt Gingrich. “And we need someone with some guts.”
Joe Schill, 70, a retired Bell South worker voting at a church in Sullivan’s Island, said he was a long time supporter of Gingrich’s – and while he doesn’t have a flattering opinion of any politician, he said Gingrich is better than most.
“Newt is down-to-earth and tells it like it is,” he said. Romney, on the other hand, “is a silver tongued devil.”
Jim Near, 56, a Realtor and meteorologist from Mount Pleasant, said he voted for Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.), after feeling torn between Paul, Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
Romney, he said, never entered the equation.
“He’s too slick for me. Too polished,” Near said. He said the image was bolstered by Romney’s responses this week to questions about whether he would release his tax records. “It’s that slickness. We all pay taxes. There should be no issue there. His responses were no good.”
In the end, he feared Gingrich had too much baggage and did not believe Santorum could win.
“Ron Paul seems the most honest. He’s not trying to portray himself as anything other than who he is,” Near said.
— Rosalind S. Helderman
1:06 p.m. | Crisis averted at Tommy's Ham HouseNewt Gingrich and Mitt Romney were on a collision course Saturday morning, both in the polls and on the trail: the two presidential hopefuls had somehow managed to schedule campaign stops at the same popular breakfast venue at the same time, 10:45 a.m.
Would the two engage in a campaign-trail confrontation? A ham house showdown?
Mitt Romney supporters hold up pro-Romney and anti-Newt Gingrich signs at Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville, S.C. (The Washington Post/Philip Rucker) As it happens, tensions were defused after Romney showed up 45 minutes earlier than expected, greeting diners at Tommy’s and then hopping into his campaign bus before Gingrich had even arrived.
But that didn’t stop Gingrich from having a little fun at Romney’s expense. The former House speaker poked fun at Romney’s northern roots by noting that New England clam chowder was not on the menu.
12:45 p.m., Mount Pleasant | 'It's okay to be successful in this country'Danny Causey, who has run a popular neighborhood barbershop in Mount Pleasant for decades (walls and ceilings covered with pennants, autographed photo of Strom Thurmond on the wall), says that his clients seem more unsettled in their choices than in any election year he can remember.
“It’s kind of difficult this year. Everybody I talk to, they want to, they want a change from the president we got. They just don’t know which way to go,” he said. “Some of the ones they like the best, they think they don’t have a chance.” So he senses a shift toward Mitt Romney among his customers.
E.P. Chiola, who was coming out of his polling place at a beachfront Presbyterian church on Sullivan’s Island, said that “of all of them together, the one to give them the best battle up there is Gingrich.”
Chiola had originally thought he would vote for Rick Santorum, but after getting at least 20 phone calls at home, changed his mind.
“The more I thought about it, the more I decided I’m looking for a good fight,” he said.
Michael and Elizabeth Ricciardone, a hospital administrator and a retired college professor, said coming out of the school where they voted in Mount Pleasant that they had decided long ago to vote for Romney and never wavered. Key factors are his business know-how and character, they said.
“It’s okay to be successful in this country. Redistribution of wealth is not in my vocabulary,” Michael Ricciardone said.
— Karen Tumulty
By Felicia Sonmez and Natalie Jennings | 03:00 PM ET, 01/21/2012 © 2011 The Washington Post Company
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