'Knife-fighting': Trump and challengers face 'make-or-break' moment in brutal South Carolina primary

Donald Trump and his field of Republican challengers are reportedly approaching new territory that could upend their race.

That's because one state's primary, already known as crucial for GOP hopefuls, has experienced new and unexpected twists that are changing things. That would mean the usual "knife-fighting" present in the GOP's already-tough South Carolina's primary "could get even bloodier" this year, according to a Politico report.

"The state Republican Party’s decision to schedule its election for Feb. 24 means the first-in-the-South primary will potentially take place more than a month after Iowa and New Hampshire," the outlet wrote. "That open stretch means South Carolina is poised to carry more weight than ever in determining whether former President Donald Trump’s march to a third consecutive nomination will face a sustained threat stretching past the early states and into the meat of the primary calendar."

Steven Shepard, Politico's senior campaigns and elections editor, further noted that, while the calendar is not yet finalized, the way things are shaking out shows that the most likely result is a brutal South Carolina primary that either hobbles Trump or dooms some of his rivals.

"That calendar is still unofficial, since only South Carolina and Iowa (which announced its caucus date hours after this column was originally published) have actually set dates," Shepard wrote on Saturday. "But the most likely scenario is now a historically lengthy runup to the notoriously rough-and-tumble South Carolina primary, raising the stakes even higher for competing there."

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Politico reports that Trump is leading in the state, but there is room for consolidation around a "not Trump" candidate.

"That could turn the state into a make-or-break for favorite son and daughter candidates Sen. Tim Scott and former Gov. Nikki Haley. It also ups the ante for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose campaign celebrated the state GOP’s decision to schedule the primary for a later date than initially expected," Shepard wrote. "Trump’s lead in South Carolina is considerable, but there’s an opening for his challengers. Two surveys last month from Republican polling firms gave the former president identical 23-point leads over DeSantis. But Trump was also at 41 percent — a lower share than in national and most other early-state polling — thanks mostly to Scott and Haley each pulling around 10 percent of the vote."