Donald Trump wins South Carolina Republican Primary

Donald Trump has been declared as the winner of the South Carolina Republican Primary, paving his way for the Republican nomination.

With 52 percent of votes declared, Trump held the lead with 33.7 percent of the vote, and most major media declared him the winner.

Ted Cruz and Marcus Rubio battled for second place with around 21.6 percent of the vote each.

Other contenders, John Kasich and Jeb Bush equally gained around 8.2 percent of the vote, and Ben Carson had only 6.6 percent.

The result for Trump will pave his way into the upcoming Republican nomination battle.

Since announcing his bid for the White House, Trump has led in most polls, despite a string of controversial comments and flip-flops on issues such as same-sex marriage.

“Voters want to change the way DC functions,” Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said, “and the only way to do that is to elect Donald Trump.”

Meanwhile, in Nevada, Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Bernie Sanders for the win.

Next, the Republicans will head to Nevada, where Trump on average polls at around 20 points ahead of the competition.

Come ‘Super Tuesday’, the first of March, around a dozen states will hold their nomination contests.

Trump currently leads in polls in most of the dozen states, except Ted Cruz’s home-state Texas, where he holds an advantage.

According to Lewandowski, Trump only spent $1.3 million in South Carolina, one tenth of what Jeb Bush and his Super Pacs spent.

Donald Trump earlier this week sought to assure evangelicals that they can “trust” him to overturn the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.

He previously branded opposition to same-sex marriage a “dead issue” – but told Fox News he would likely back a plot to overturn it, before telling a lesbian TV journalist that he would “move forward” on LGBT rights just days later.

When challenged on the contradiction in a third interview, Mr Trump attempted to maintain both contradicting views simultaneously.