Republicans Scramble to Pick Up Graham's Supporters in South Carolina
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush answers a question as South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley looks on on March 17, 2015, in Columbia, South Carolina.
Photographer: Richard Ellis/Getty ImagesAside from the One Eared Cow Glass gallery and a shuttered Grice’s fruit basket shop, there is little in a half-mile stretch of South Carolina’s capital city that separates the state headquarters of Republican presidential rivals Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.
On a rainy Wednesday, the latest in a water-logged winter for the home of the American South's premier presidential primary, a trio of staffers manned each of the offices: Rubio’s a 12,000-square-foot, open plan formerly occupied by the Columbia Flag & Banner company; Bush’s a former flooring store about half the size. At Rubio's shop, rain dripped from the vaulted ceiling into lined trash cans; at Bush's, the damp contributed to a minor mold outbreak.