COLUMBIA, S.C. -- (PE) Some call it God's country, Bamberg, S.C., an old railroad town south of Orangeburg in the middle of farm country. Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley calls it "my hometown" as she likes to tell it, she grew up here in a town with "2,500 people, two spotlights and you couldn't think about doing something wrong without somebody telling your mom."
Haley's family owned a clothing store, Exotica, where almost all the girls bought their prom dresses there, including former classmate Sharon Carter, now chairwoman of Bamberg County's Republican Party.
But hometown roots aren't helping Haley. Bamberg is one of the few deep-blue counties in the state and the few Republicans here seem to prefer former president Donald Trump over her, Carter said. Even if they used to buy their prom dresses from her family.
New polling from Monmouth College released February 1 shows Haley's problems reach much farther than Bamberg. The former South Carolina governor has a woman problem, they don't like her, especially in rural areas, where she trails Trump by a little more than 30-points compared to 20-points in the state's more metro areas.
And while her polling numbers are bad among woman, they're not much better as a whole.
"Her issue is much bigger than just woman," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. "She's doing poorly across the board."
58 percent of potential Republican primary voters currently support Trump, up from 46 percent in September, while 32 percent support Haley, up from 18 percent in September.
Haley does lead Trump 55-27 percent among those who have voted in both party's primaries since 2016.
"Haley's hopes appear to hang on pulling in Democrat-leaning voters who would never support her in a general election, but simply want to stop Trump," said Murray. "Our sampling frame for this poll did not include voters who have participated only in Democrat primaries."
There has been speculation that South Carolina democrats have strategized to skip their own primary to be eligible to vote for Haley in the Republican primary, since South Carolina has open primaries with no partisan registration.
By the use of this strategy to her advantage "she could narrow the gap. It would remain a tough challenge, though, for her to actually close it," he said.
Haley trails Trump in the Palmetto state on immigration policy 62-22 percent, economic policy 60-21 percent, foreign policy 54-29 percent and abortion policy 35-26 percent according to the poll.
If polling data provided reflects primary result outcome, it might be a great day in South Carolina, but not for Haley and her supporters, for it'll be Trump Country.
