McCain edges Huckabee in South Carolina

Sen. John McCain accepts victory in the South Carolina GOP primary. (Video provided by MSNBC.com)

By Kimberly Chin
Assistant News Editor

Uncertainty continues in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, as Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) wins the South Carolina primary with 33 percent of the vote to become the GOP victor in the first Southern primary, a state he lost when he was the object of aggressive negative campaigning in 2000 by then-Gov. George W. Bush's campaign.

He edged out Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.), who received 30 percent of the vote, with 94 percent of precincts reporting, while Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) and Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) raced for third place, Romney trailing behind Thompson by less than 1 percent.

“It took us a while, but what’s eight years among friends?” McCain said in his victory speech, referring to his unsuccessful campaign against President George Bush in 2000. Shouts of “Mac is back! Mac is back!” echoed among McCain's supporters.

Every GOP winner in the South Carolina primary has become the nominee since 1980. And no Republican has won the White House without South Carolina for decades.

McCain's support again came from Independents and some Republicans, but he lost overall registered Republicans to Huckabee. Huckabee's core constituency, evangelical Christians, split its vote between McCain, Huckabee and Thompson, according to exit polls.

McCain appealed to the voters who felt that the top campaign issue remains the war in Iraq, according to exit polls.

Huckabee had announced that he had called McCain personally to congratulate him and thanked him for a "civil and decent" campaign. "The path to the White House is not ending here tonight," Huckabee said in his concession speech. "Tomorrow we wake up to fight the battle yet again and yet again."

Thompson delivered a rambling speech to his supporters even before the votes were fully tallied. "It's never been about me. It's never even been about you. It's been about our country," Thompson told his supporters. Pundits on MSNBC were laughing as he finished, and anchor Keith Olbermann asked "What was that?" as they came back on the air.

Analysts believe he may drop out of the race in the coming days, because he had been banking on a strong showing in South Carolina, and he did not indicate meeting that threshold. CNN reported that two sources said Thompson may be hitting the end of his campaign, with aides saying it had become "abundantly evident to us all."

Romney's shifted his focus from South Carolina toward Nevada earlier in the campaign, amounting to a victory for him there.

McCain's victory carries momentum for his campaign into Florida, where the GOP holds its next primary on Jan. 29, and where McCain already has a slight lead, according to polls conducted in the state. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is banking on a Florida victory to carry his campaign into Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, but his precipitous decline in the polls may prevent it from happening.