- Yeah, before Super Tuesday, before the big Republican and Democratic national conventions, well, if you wanna be president, first, you have to come to South Carolina, and then you've gotta get through South Carolina.

It's another Friday night just outside Lancaster, South Carolina.

And as the sunset shadows get longer, so do the lines at Indian Land High School as these small town folks.

- I do like it because I'm coming from a country that it's not like that.

- [Jeff] With their small town votes.

Have you made up your mind yet?

- No.

- [Jeff] That's why you're here, I guess.

- Yes.

- [Jeff] Get ready for another big decision, choosing who we all get to vote for in November.

- Well, I think we should hear the candidate in person if we have the opportunity.

- I will say it's a great day in Indian Land, and this is a perfect example, power.

We've got such a strong community right here in Indian Land, South Carolina.

Thank y'all for showing up tonight.

(supporters clapping and cheering) - [Nikki] Oh, look at the crowd.

- [Jeff] And here's the candidate they're showing up for on this Friday night.

- [Nikki] It's a great day in South Carolina.

(supporters clapping and cheering) - Former governor Nikki Haley, running this time in the GOP primary for president, reminding her fellow South Carolina voters why South Carolina votes are so important so early in the presidential process.

- Only two states have voted.

We've got 48 states and territories that still have to go.

(supporters clapping and cheering) Yes, they were referring to us as the beast of the Southeast, which are still on.

(audience clapping and cheering) - [Jeff] At the same night, Haley had the high school stage in Indian Land, vice president Kamala Harris was on another stage, in Orangeburg.

- And it is so wonderful to be back in this beautiful state.

This is my third trip to South Carolina just as the beginning of the year.

- [Jeff] And a few days before that, President Biden himself stopped by this local Columbia barbershop.

- Shook hands with our team members, shook hands with the clients who were being serviced.

- [Supporters] USA.

- [Jeff] Also, don't forget, former president Trump on the coast in Conway for another South Carolina campaign rally.

- Well, thank you very much, South Carolina.

We've had a great relationship with South Carolina.

- [Jeff] Yep, for one month every four years, welcome to ground zero in presidential politics and South Carolina's reputation as the launchpad for some presidential campaigns and the graveyard for others.

- So for both parties, South Carolina is a really important testing grounds but for very different reasons.

- [Presenter] Winthrop University's Dr. Scott Huffman explains that for Democratic candidates, South Carolina is the first presidential primary with a large number of minority voters.

- So because African Americans are such an important part of any winning Democratic presidential coalition come November, South Carolina is the first test of that support and that enthusiasm.

- [Jeff] And for Republicans, their test in South Carolina is appealing to a broader range of religious, social, and fiscal conservatives, a lot more than those voting in Iowa or New Hampshire.

- If you are the type of Republican who can win over that coalition of conservatives, then you might be the type of Republican who can sweep the 11 states south.

- [Jeff] But Dr. Huffman adds that the real primary winners aren't the candidates but these South Carolina voters who see them face to face in the pressure of a presidential race instead of just watching campaign commercials on TV.

- Where our voters get to see the candidates while they're on the cusp of really being in or being kicked out.

And so those face-to-face meetings really do make a difference in how the voters physically see them versus the voters who only see the national campaigns.

(patriotic music) - And I do get political candidates come in, but they're usually just getting lunch.

- [Jeff] Here at Leigh Anne's Restaurant in Lancaster, we grab a table in the corner with owner Greg Lusk, who says his regulars don't usually talk politics here, not even during the primary season.

- You know, they sit down, and they just talk about really what's going on around town, the other things.

Sometimes a little politics gets involved, but it's never aided.

- [Jeff] Four years ago, though, during the last primary season in 2020, well, Lusk remembers there was that week that the Bernie Sanders campaign came to town.

- I think it was about five days, like pretty much the entire week, that there was almost 20 of those guys regularly coming through here.

So, so they really swarmed, swarmed the area.

You know, they all had their clipboards.

They're excited to go out and talk to all the neighborhoods.

So that's really the biggest during any primary season or even during elections that I've seen groups swing by.

- [Jeff] Which brings us to the other big winners in the South Carolina primaries, those local businesses, big and small, all cashing in before the candidates cash out.

- As a South Carolinian, thank you to all those campaigns that come down here and spend money in hotels and restaurants, and everywhere else.

It's a bump to our economy as well, to be honest.

- Turns out the South Carolina primaries are also a pretty good predictor of who will be on the presidential ballot this November.

South Carolina Democrats have been right about their party's nominee every year but once since 1992.

And South Carolina Republicans, well, they've been right about their party's eventual nominee every year but once since 1980.