COLUMBIA, S.C. — Presidential candidates in both parties battled for the crucial backing of blacks and Hispanics on Friday as the race shifted toward states with more minority voters.
Republicans crisscrossed South Carolina looking to derail billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who each came to the state with a burst of momentum after the first two nomination contests. Several candidates embraced the chaos as they felt out the best strategies to survive South Carolina and advance into a grueling March primary schedule, when 58 percent of the party’s delegate total will be at stake.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was embracing his family ties. Bush on Friday defended his decision to bring his brother, former President George W. Bush, to South Carolina to help him campaign. Speaking to ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Jeb Bush said recruiting the former president wasn’t a sign of desperation, as Trump has suggested. George W. Bush, who is slated to campaign for his brother on Monday, left the White House in January 2009 with low approval ratings.
“This is the beginning of the campaign,” and “for my brother to speak on behalf of the skills I have to lead this country will be quite helpful,” Jeb Bush said. He later picked up the endorsement of South Carolina’s former first lady Iris Campbell, a longtime Bush family ally.