“Very conservative evangelicals” are the dominant force in many South Carolina counties, but you wouldn’t know it from tonight’s results. Take Chesterfield county, one of six sizeable counties to have voted for Bush in 2000, Huckabee in 2008, and giving Santorum over 20% in 2012. All 25 precincts are in, and Ted Cruz, who has based his campaign on capturing this vote, has lost it by 8 percent to Donald Trump.

Cruz is also losing to Trump in four of the other five religious bastion counties – York, Spartanburg, Lancaster, and Cherokee. If he can’t beat Trump here, he’s really got his work cut out for him in the March 1 SEC primary states.