Donald Trump entered the South Carolina Republican primary race with a strong standing among the state’s many conservatives, despite the establishment backing his rivals. Exit polls suggest there’s one Trump stance that voters particularly favor: his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
A whopping 74% of South Carolina primary voters said they backed Trump’s proposal, according to ABC News, compared with 65% support in New Hampshire. At a rally in North Charleston on Friday, Trump played the anti-Muslim card once again, when he told the apocryphal story of a US general who shot Muslims in the Philippines with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood.
Although South Carolinian Republicans may like Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, their religious allegiances could also align them Texas senator Ted Cruz. Nearly three-quarters of primary voters said they were born-again or evangelical Christians, a group that gave Cruz the win in Iowa. Going into the primary, evangelical voters were split, but were backing Trump by a slim margin.