Trump-Endorsed Pastor Mark Burns Wins GOP Primary in SC

Young priest reading Bible indoors, closeup

Election day 2024 is now less than five calendar months away from occurring. As the summer season across the United States begins to enter its peak stages, the nation appears to be headed towards a closely battled, hotly fought general election this cycle. The country is in a polarized, divided and volatile state politically, and this is unlikely to change over the next several months. The battle in November is projected currently to be between the incumbent president, the 46th commander in chief of the United States Joe Biden and Donald Trump the former 45th president and a businessman, real estate giant and reality television personality from New York City. Most recent projections predict a very close race, with Trump and Biden locked in a neck-and-neck fight with only a few percentage points separating the two men. Recent polls show that in Virginia, a state that Republicans have fared rather poorly in over the last several decades, things could be tightening between the two.

The contest is likely to be decided by a few crucial swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, and others. Biden and Trump are also deadlocked in a dogfight for support in these areas, and while Trump currently has been projected to have an edge over Biden in several of these states, four months is a considerable amount of time politically speaking and frankly anything could happen between now and November. 

Both men are quite unpopular, with Biden boasting historically low approval ratings for a president, and Trump also carrying significant baggage and a poor public perception. Despite this, Trump continues to have a galvanizing amount of support in the GOP hard-right political base nationally and many far-right conservative candidates that he endorses in solidly conservative primaries continue to perform well. In South Carolina, a Pastor named Mark Burns was endorsed by Trump and handily won a GOP primary contest in a crowded field.