South Carolina Exits Polls: GOP More Complex Than You Think

The exit poll only adds to the picture of a conflicted Republican Party. While both Joe Biden and Trump have tried to rechristen the GOP as the MAGA party, Republican voters themselves remain divided on the MAGA brand. Only 41 percent of primary voters considered themselves “part of the MAGA movement.” Conversely, 77 percent of Republican primary voters viewed themselves as “conservative,” which suggests that they remain much more attached to the tropes of “conservatism” than those of MAGA. Moreover, many of those voters might not see an essential tension between conservatism and MAGA. (Trump won majorities of voters identifying with either label.)

In a post-Roe world, the GOP has struggled with the abortion issue, and the exit poll indicates how evenly the party is divided on it: 51 percent supported a nationwide ban on all or most abortions, while 44 percent opposed such a ban. Even though Trump had criticized pro-life efforts earlier in the primary, he still won that anti-abortion bloc by a sweeping margin and more narrowly lost opponents of such an abortion ban. 

The South Carolina primary electorate complicates popular narratives that the Republican Party is supposedly veering toward isolationism under Trump.