SC Primary Analysis

The first Post and Courier article, by Schuyler Kropf, “Trump wins SC primary in a run away”, focuses on Trump’s decisive victory in the South Carolinian Republican Primary, with Rubio and Truz finishing in second and third respectively. It also discusses the other candidates who had disappointing primaries, such as Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Marco Rubio. It provides thorough context of the elections, especially in regards to the voters. Voter turnout (725,000, a SC record), voter demographic (majority being Evangelical), and the voters’ view of mistrust toward politicians in the GOP were three main points of the article that helped to delineate why the results were what they were. The article also contains the most relevant and powerful quotes from Trump, Rubio and Cruz that all served to emphasize their respective views on the state of their campaigns. However, there is some bias in the article, especially when Kropf says “Trump’s win provides further evidence that the grassroots and working-class anger fueling his rise still simmers.”

The second article, “Black Turnout boosts Clinton in a big way”, by Robert Behre, discusses the Democratic primaries in South Carolina. However, it focuses less on the candidates than the first article and even more on the voters. It provides a myriad of facts and figures in order to give a detailed description of the voter demographic, especially the African American voters, and how they predominantly voted for. The article also describes the stark decrease in the percentage of Democrats who voted, 12%, compared to the 25% of Republicans who voted. Instead of quoting the candidates, the article quoted a Winthrop University professor, Scott Huffmon, who compared the 2016 primaries to that of 2008 when Barack Obama was running for his first term. Huffmon was able to produce a more localized perspective of the primary, giving us a better idea of the way SC voters think.

Both articles shared in common the discussion of voter demographic and turnout, although the second article provided even more insight into the voters. This is highlighted by the photograph shown at the top of each article, which are both powerful in their own right. However, the first article’s photo focuses more on Trump while the second photo emphasizes the voters, which happen to be African-American.