Trump lends support to McMaster in South Carolina runoff

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump's effort to bend the Republican Party to his will faces its next test Tuesday, when South Carolina voters choose between two GOP gubernatorial candidates who both claim to be Trump followers.

The president has already made his pick: incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster, a longtime Trump supporter who failed to win the GOP primary outright earlier this month. McMaster is waging a runoff campaign against businessman John Warren, a first-time politico who some see as more like Trump himself.

The White House is throwing everything at its disposal into the race to save McMaster, who went out on a political limb for Trump at a crucial point in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

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