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What South Carolina Wants from America's Next President

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GREENVILLE, S.C. - Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have had their say in the Republican presidential primaries. Next week, the residents of South Carolina will get their chance.

So what do voters in the Palmetto State think? CBN's Paul Strand spoke with some of them to find out what they're looking for in the next president.

The first primary in the South is quite important, and the presidential candidates know it. They spent months crisscrossing the state, trying to shore up votes before the Feb. 20 primary.

People here take their faith seriously, and you can easily get voters like Greenville resident Judy Selby riled up about threats to their religious liberties.

"Our pastor has been telling us that our religious liberties really are in jeopardy," she said. "And so, anybody who would fight for those I think would be a very important person to have in the White House. I don't think we have that now," she said.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins agreed.

"I think this is one of the top issues of the day," he said. "If we lose religious freedom, all the other freedoms that we hold dear will be lost with it."

Selby's son, Mark, is as worried as she is about threats to religious liberty.

"So that's a major issue. I'm Second Amendment, pro-life  -- or anti-death if you will. So those are some very significant issues to me," he told CBN News. "But, I mean, the Supreme Court, even national security, I mean, it's all very important to me."

Millennials have the potential to be a large voter bloc in this state, but many are up in the air - like Emma who attended a Ben Carson rally.

"I just wanted to see what this candidate has to say," she said, adding that she's excited about her first election.

So is Kyle, a fellow Millennial.

"It's part of being a citizen, being part of the country," he told CBN News. "You get to have a say in who runs it."

Millennials, like Chris, are famous for hating the artificial, the pre-fab. He says he loves a candidate who just tells it straight.

"It's matter-of-fact, it's in your face, it wakes you up," he said. "And that's really what we as Millennials expect. We want somebody who's going to tell us the truth and nothing but it and not try to pull the shade over our eyes."

South Carolina voters reflect the nation as a whole, with a nice mix of social conservatives, libertarians and independents.

Mark Selby falls into that conservative category but doesn't talk politics much with friends.

"None among my friends are conservatives, so I don't know if we have this conversation a lot. We avoid it sometimes," Selby said.

But he's got his dad, Steve, whose conservative politics lead him to look for a very specific candidate.

“One who’ll turn America back to where it was before the last seven years took effect,” Steve Selby said.

Many South Carolinians indicate they're Donald Trump fans. One resident named Steve said he was a fan of the business mogul - but no longer.

"He's very proud, and all these things that he's promised to do that I'm not sure he's going to be able to do what he says he's going to do. 'I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this.' I don't know if he can do that or not," he said.

Young Kyle can relate.

"Well, I think it's easy to kind of talk big. I want to hear more about how is this going to happen," he said.

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About The Author

Paul
Strand

As senior correspondent in CBN's Washington bureau, Paul Strand has covered a variety of political and social issues, with an emphasis on defense, justice, and Congress. Strand began his tenure at CBN News in 1985 as an evening assignment editor in Washington, D.C. After a year, he worked with CBN Radio News for three years, returning to the television newsroom to accept a position as editor in 1990. After five years in Virginia Beach, Strand moved back to the nation's capital, where he has been a correspondent since 1995. Before joining CBN News, Strand served as the newspaper editor for