Republican candidates make their final pitches to South Carolina voters.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The Republican presidential candidates hurtled across South Carolina on Friday to make their final, frantic pitch one day before the state’s primary, as polls showed the race tightening here after a volatile and often nasty week of campaigning.
The vote on Saturday, a critical test of organization and strength for much of the field, comes as the candidates are closing in on Donald Trump, who until now has held comfortable leads in the polls here. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Trump just 5 points ahead, down from his 16-point lead in the state a month ago.
The poll had Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in second with 23 percent, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, vying for third and fourth place, with 15 and 13 percent, respectively. Ben Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon, and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio each had 9 percent.
As the Republican field winnows, nearly all the remaining contenders need to deliver strong performances.
A big victory by Trump would give him a jolt of momentum that could add a sheen of inevitability to his candidacy heading into the crucial March 1 contests, when 12 states vote, many of them in the South.
A strong performance by Rubio, who has been attracting large crowds and secured the endorsement of Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina despite stumbling badly in New Hampshire, could fully resuscitate his campaign as he seeks to become the preferred establishment alternative to Trump and Cruz.
Rubio began his own busy day with a morning rally in downtown Columbia, that drew several hundred people. In a show of force intended to underscore his message of ushering in a new generation of Republican stars, Rubio was flanked by the political leaders here who have endorsed him — a diverse lot that included Haley, an IndianAmerican; Tim Scott, a U.S. senator who is black; and Trey Gowdy, a popular congressman who is white.
“The new conservative movement looks like a Benetton commercial,” Haley shouted to the crowd as she beckoned them all to join her and Rubio on the stage.
Rubio, who was scheduled to be in almost every corner of the state on his five-event day Friday — from Charleston to Hilton Head along the coast to Clemson on the Georgia border — cast himself as the candidate most attuned to the anxieties of regular Americans and the most capable of restoring the American dream.
“We have a chance to be the authors of the greatest chapter in the story of America, and that is why I’m asking you for your support tomorrow,” he said, wrapping up his remarks.