South Carolina voters had an unusually high opinion of Hillary Clinton's honesty

Hillary takes the South Carolina primary.
(Image credit: REUTERS/David Becker)

Exit polls from Saturday's Democratic presidential primary revealed South Carolinians find Hillary Clinton more trustworthy than Bernie Sanders, a marked contrast with national polling trends throughout the Democratic primary.

More than seven in 10 South Carolina voters said Clinton is honest, while only six in 10 said the same of Sanders. Voters' trust in the candidates varied significantly by race: Black voters were far more likely to trust Clinton — especially on race relations — and they made up nearly two-thirds of primary participants.

Nationally, however, it is Sanders who conclusively wins the trust primary. A recent Gallup poll showed that dishonesty is the top trait voters associate with Clinton; and a January YouGov survey found 54 percent of likely Democratic primary voters deemed Sanders honest, while just 22 percent said the same of his rival.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.