The South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary took place last Saturday, February 20th. Unlike most states that handle both democrats and republicans on the same day, SC chooses to split it up. Did the Democrats prop up Trump’s results for their own endgame?
To be honest, there is no way to know. South Carolina’s presidential primary is open, which means that regardless of what party you are registered with, you can vote in it. Democrat involvement, in this case, is a theory that is floating around the blogosphere and is a practice that has been executed on of both sides of the aisle.
The objective of this type of move is to push the opposing candidate to the forefront of the race that they feel their side can beat to ensure their desired outcome. Put more simply, some believe that Clinton supporters organized to vote for Trump to help him win the Republican nomination because they believe that she can beat Trump easier than some of the other GOP candidates. If they, in fact, did this, they would be attempting to influence whom the Republican presidential nominee ends up being.
It is not illegal to do this and it is not unheard of. However, any Clinton supporters who voted for Trump sacrificed their option to vote for Clinton as you only get one vote in the state’s primary. If she has enough overwhelming support in South Carolina, then the sacrifice may be within what the campaign can endure and would be seen as being worth it to strengthen the outcome they are shooting for.
However, there is no way to know if this actually occurred. It may have been a strategic move on the part of the Dems, but the theory could just be an excuse by supporters of losing candidates to rationalize Trump’s significant success. You will have to decide which side of the theory you fall on, and how much you weigh the possibility of it.
For the sake of argument, let’s take a look at how this would affect the figures, such as the 2016 presidential election betting odds and poll numbers. Obviously, if Clinton supporters falsely propped up Trump’s results for the sake of their own party, it would skew the figures in Trump’s favor and could misrepresent the true level of support that he carries with him.
This could result in inflated odds and inaccurate polling data, which in turn may skew the presidential betting lines and final odds. Those of you who engage in betting entertainment for the individual state primaries or the final outcome of the election may want to take this possibility into consideration.
To be honest, it doesn’t actually need to have taken place to skew the numbers. If enough people believe that Trump’s results were affected by Democrats pushing for their own endgame, then that alone is enough to affect the presidential betting odds.
If the oddsmakers are convinced that this theory is legitimate, it could definitely affect their determinations regarding the odds for the candidates on both sides of the race, regardless of what the truth is. Perception really is crucial in this case.
In my humble opinion, what is more likely is that Trump has won the support of the evangelical voter base in South Carolina, and possibly in other parts of the country. It doesn’t make sense by any stretch of the imagination that he could take votes from Christians such as Cruz and Rubio who are running a faith-infused campaign, but that is what I think is happening.
Christian voters are forgiving the lack of aligning faith-based priorities, which is something we have not seen before in presidential elections. As we’ve pointed out in other blog articles, this election is redefining politics in America and possibly causing the oddsmakers to refine their methodology in creating accurate odds for presidential candidates.