A very happy political Saturday night everyone. Welcome to our very special coverage of the South Carolina Republican primary. I'm Chris Hayes. I'm joined tonight by my colleague Rachel Maddo and my colleague Joy Reed and then here with me at this table here

Lawrence O'Donnell Stephanie Rule Alex Wagner and Ari Malbore. We got the whole gang

together across several different locations. Polls will close in South Carolina in just

about half an hour at seven eastern. Coming up we're going to hear from Steve

Kornaki at of course the big board. We will also hear from South Carolina voters out in the

field and there's a lot to get to over the next few hours and what has been a crazy

last 48 hours of news. This Republican primary tonight of course brings us back to the home state of one Nicky Haley

where she was twice elected governor had high approval raising as such it also

brings us to the moment when Donald Trump hopes to basically

end this thing, to close the rays out and consolidate his control officially and

finally of the Republican Party. A decade has passed since Haley last ran. the The state electorate for one has changed. It's long enough to put her behind Trump in the polls consistently by double digits.

That said, South Carolina is an open primary.

It means you do not need to be a registered Republican or to cast a

ballot so one of the things we will be watching for tonight among many is how much

support Haley polls from independent Democratic-leaning voters as again a possible early sign of how she might fare as the nominee were she to become one in a general election

Even though Trump declared this week that Haley's bid for the nomination will end here tonight.

Haley has made it very clear insistently and consistently that she will stay in the race no matter what.

She has booked campaign appearances. She's named a leadership team for the

primary that comes up right in a few days in Michigan coming this Tuesday it's a big

night for politics we are always so happy to have you joining us and I want to start

with Rachel who we're

very badly missing here in the studio for what is an admittedly unusual Saturday

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