Frank Cannon is president of the American Principles Project and a respected conservative political strategist with over 30 years of experience.

South Carolina is an interesting state because it has — about a third of its population is establishment Republicans, about a third is conservative military-oriented foreign policy, and about a third of it is evangelical Christians. So it sets up for a very interesting dynamic after New Hampshire and is a very critical state for the possibility of Trump running the table. …

Because if Trump wins in South Carolina, and there is a fractured field like there was in New Hampshire, with various people going along, and Cruz is not able to consolidate enough beyond the evangelical conservative base and get to the libertarians and more of the general population, Trump will have won two of the first three primaries. You go on to a caucus state where he’s unlikely to do well in Nevada, but then you go to southern states where he’s been leading almost as decisively as he’s been leading in New Hampshire. And that gives him a very strong chance of racking up tons of delegates and tons of wins before we get to March 15 and the winner-take-all primaries.

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