Elizabeth Sanders LaFleur

elafleur@greenvillenews.com

New polling numbers show the South Carolina primaries are Donald Trump's and Hillary Clinton's to lose. Trump and Clinton each hold strong leads among South Carolina voters polled from their respective parties, according to the latest data from Public Policy Polling.

Polls show Trump has 35 percent of the GOP vote, while second place goes to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio at 18 percent each. John Kasich has 10 percent. Ben Carson and Jeb Bush each have 7 percent of the vote.

On the Democratic side, Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 55 percent to Sanders's 34 percent.

PPP says what's striking about Trump's support is its consistency across varying groups. He holds 35 percent of the Evangelicals vote and 43 percent of the non-Evangelicals. Latest poll numbers show Trump has support from 41 percent of voters who consider themselves 'somewhat conservative' and 30 percent among the 'very conservative'. In each group of GOP voters studied, Trump comes out on top.

PPP says Rubio could be Trump's strongest contender, particularly if he can make the race in South Carolina seem more like a head to head contest between himself and Trump. The research group says data shows Trump has much wider leads in head to head contests with Bush and Cruz.

While nearly a third of voters polled in South Carolina say they might change their minds before the election, Trump's supporters tend to be set on voting for the businessman, with 77 percent saying Trump can definitely count on their vote.

PPP credits Clinton's strong lead to South Carolina's large African American voting base. While Clinton and Sanders are tied among white voters at 46 percent, Clinton tends to pull ahead among black voters. Clinton carries that group by a margin of 63 to 23. The group says South Carolina's open primary could be Sanders' biggest ally, thanks to the possibility of reeling in independent voters, a group in which he already holds the lead.

You can see the full results of PPP's latest polls here.

South Carolina's GOP Presidential Preference Primary is Saturday, Feb. 20. The Democratic Presidential Preference Primary is Saturday, Feb. 27.Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Elizabeth Sanders is a Digital Producer for The Greenville News. Follow her on Twitter @elizabethwrens