SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Donald Trump has won South Carolina's primary, cementing his status as a formidable frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump led the field with 33% of the vote and 79% of votes tallied. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were in a dogfight for second place with 22% apiece, with Jeb Bush and John Kasich at 8% and Ben Carson at 7%. The state's results are a major disappointment for both Cruz and Bush, who announced he was suspending his campaign soon after the results came in.

Trump's big win in a deeply religious southern state shows that his tough talk, penchant for controversy and hardline immigration views outweigh his past social liberalism with enough voters — and keep him in the driver's seat for the nomination, with a series of Deep South states set to vote in the coming weeks.

The GOP frontrunner took a victory lap with his whole family onstage, letting his wife and daughter speak before celebrating his big win — and promising more to come.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks with his family by his side after winning the South Carolina primary. Image: Paul Sancya/Associated Press

"Folks let's go, lets have a big win in Nevada. Let's have a big win in the SEC [southern states]. Let's put this thing away," Trump declared to huge cheers from the thousands who waited hours to hear his 15-minute speech.

Trump won the state after a wild week in which he exchanged in a war of words with Pope Francis, attacked former President George W. Bush for not preventing the 9/11 attacks, repeatedly threatened a lawsuit against Ted Cruz over an attack ad he didn't like, and called for a boycott of Apple because of their fight against a court order to write new code to unlock a terrorists's cell phone.

Any one of those episodes would have likely hamstrung a lesser candidate. But Trump proved yet again that controversy only makes him stronger with the GOP base.

His win also shows criticism of his past support for abortion rights isn't a silver bullet. Cruz's campaign ran a heavy rotation of ads attacking Trump using a 1999 TV appearance where he laid out strongly pro-choice views (he's since flipped on the issue). A furious Trump threatened to sue Cruz, who responded by daring him to do so.

But the issue and the controversy wasn't enough to kneecap Trump in a heavily evangelical state, indicating the attacks alone won't be enough to stop him down the line even in the Bible Belt.

.@realDonaldTrump: "I think we’ll do terrific there and the SEC’s going to be very, very exciting." — Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) February 21, 2016

Perhaps that's no shock — Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary four years ago in spite of a week of heavy coverage of his two divorces and his ex-wife's accusation that he'd asked for an open marriage, largely by attacking the mainstream media.

Trump reveled in the campaign's rough-and-tumble nature in his speech, congratulating Cruz and Rubio for their strong showings while shushing those in the crowd that booed his opponents.

"It’s not easy running for president, let me tell you. It’s tough, it’s nasty, it’s mean, it’s vicious — it’s beautiful," he said with a grin, to hearty cheers.

Cruz has bet hard that his of hardline social and fiscal conservatism would give him a leg up in the South, and his failure to catch Trump or blow past Rubio in South Carolina doesn't bode well for his chances in the coming states, which are must-wins for the Texas senator.