Anyone predicted, and you know, for those of us who cover it and those who love politics, its pretty exciting, but i think a lot of experts are just scratching their heads at this point trying to figure what just happened here or whats what im seeing is is a surprising number of undecided voters at this late stage in the game, which i dont know, i suppose in some way either negatively or positively, it speaks to, you know, the quality of the candidates, but i get the impression your people are taking this, you know, obviously very seriously. Mean, this is one of the first states to vote, and its got a lot of influence. I think people understand the importance and the value, but i was struck how many people are still evaluating these candidates. You can catch nbc nighlty news live from columbia right after wis news at 6. Taking a look over downtown columbiaand a nice evening ahead as we head into the weekend. Ben tanner joins us now with a look at your as a slow moving cool front approaches, expect a partly cloudy day saturday and partly to mostly cloudy skies sunday with highs in the upper 60s and 70s. Cooler weather and showers return to the forecast monday through wednesday of next week with 1 to 2 rain totals possible. Texas senator ted cruz could to be closing in on Donald Trumps edge ahead of the vote skies sunday with highs in the upper 60s and 70s. Cooler weather and showers return to the forecast monday through wednesday of next week campaigning from the upstate to the lowcountry. Right now our mike desumma is in west columbiawhere cruz is speaking. Charles, judi this pit stop is just the latest for cruz on whats already been a packed day across the palmetto state. Earlier today the texas senator was in the low country and the grand strand. At a rally in myrtle beach this morning he took aim at president obama specifically criticizing his handling of the us military. Later on cruz would go to charleston to rally with former South Carolina mark sanford. He has now officially endorsed cruz for the Party Nomination and had this to say. You wont say it in iowa, youre not saying it in washington. So what struck me about ted was those ethanol subsidies. I fought against spending my entire time in politics, and all too few people will. You look at this room of folks, theyre fighters right here. We need another fighter in washington, in the oval office. Cruz has also had a Big Development early this week when it comes to the polls. The latest National Numbers coming from nbc and the wall trying to ride that momentum donald trump was wrapping up the final full day of campaigning in South Carolina with stops along the coast. Thousands of people turned out to see him in myrtle beach and pawleys island. In the grand strand, trump labeled himself a unifiereven as he slammed a variety of other candidates and government leaders including president obama. Trump blamed obama for not lowering unemployment for black youththe billionaire mogul saying if he was africanamerican, quotei wouldnt like him nation needs rough guys to overcome problems including bad trade deals. We are taken advantage of by every country in the world. Every country beats us. We dont win at anything. Every country beats us at trade. And yet they all hate us. You know why they hate us . Because they dont respect us. They think were stupid people. They think because our leaders are stupid, were all stupid. Thats why we have all these people in these rooms. At Pawleys Islandtrump called for a boycott of apple products until the Company Agrees to unlock the iphone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists. Record numbers of voters turned out in iowa and New Hampshire and the South CarolinaElection Commission says that could be the case tomorrow will whitson caught up with Election Officials today there is no set indicator or litmus test for voter turnout but according to the Election Commission taking a look at absentee ballots points to a very large crowd tomorrow. According to the commission a whopping 65 thousand absentee ballots have been returned to the office 49 thousand of those are just republican ballots. According to Chris Whitmire with the Election Commission though, that isnt an iron clad guarantee that more voters are interested in this election as he put it, it could just mean people who would normally go to the polls are choosing to vote a different way this year. But, he did say this is the largest absentee return in president ial primary history. If you look at absentee and see this as an indicator that yes people are more interested, more motivated to come out and vote, then i think you can look at our past numbers and say we likely could surpass those. Whitmire did point out two things to watch out for tomorrow at the polls the first, while this is an open primary, and you dont have to be affiliated with a Political Party to vote if you do vote tomorrow, you cannot vote in the democratic primary next saturday. See names like rand paul, Chris Christie and carly fiorina. Even though they have withdrawn, they did so after the ballot was drawn up so it was too late to remove their names. Ww wis news 10 stay tuned to wis throughout the entire weekend, as we cover all the angles of the republican primary tomorrow. Our special coverage continues tomorrow morning. Well also be live at all the various Campaign Headquarters as the results come in tomorrow evening. You can get the latest numbers as they come in on air and online at wistv dot com. Lexington Business Owner greg leon, who was part of the scandal surrounding former sheriff james metts, is now is now being held on half a Million Dollars bond on murder charges. His bond was set today. Hes charged for the deadly day. Investigators say leon shot into a car with his wife and the still unidentified victim in it. Today dozens of members of leons family were in the courtroom asking the judge to grant him bond. Hes also to have no contact with his wife or posses a deadly weapon. Hell have to appear in federal Court Next Week before his bond can take effect. A Kershaw County man accused of fatally shooting a teenager was granted a 200 thousand dollar surety bond today. Jimmy methe is charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of 17yearold brandon spencer. Authorities say methe caught spencer stealing from his truck before he shot him. Meanwhile, spencer is being described as the ringleader of a group of five teens now charged in another case. The teens, including Isaac Barrett and hunter mclendon, are charged with armed robbery. Its in connection with a february 2nd incident in which a victim was attacked and robbed at a lugoff boat landing. Coming upthe gamecocks are the baseball diamond as they kick off their 2016 baseball season. Well go out live to Founders Park right after this break. Break 2 bamberg i was one of the leaders in the house to take charge and say the flag has to come down now. Bernie aligns more with what im passionate about addressing issues with civil rights, criminal justice reform, income disparities. We need a leader like bernie who is not afraid to go against the status quo. For years he stood up against wrong, even when it wasnt popular. Weatheras theyre back playing ball in the capital city tonight. Sports director rick henry is live at the newly renamed ballparkwhere the game is underway right now. The gamecocks and the albany great danes are in the inning here at Founders Park on opening day. The score is to. Sophomore right hander Clarke Schmidt is the opening day starter for usc. Schmidt won the friday starters role by having a good summer and fall. Today inning last season as a freshman. He started ten games and made eight relief appearances. He finished with a two and two record. Schmidt says he was so excited about important. Jeb bushs campaign has cratered, now he just slings mud. But, its made no difference. The state endorsed john kasich saying voters should, ignore the blather of candidates without real credentials to lead the country. The usa today poll said kasich was the most likely republican to beat Hillary Clinton, beating her by eleven points. John kasich is president ial. Partly cloudy day saturday and partly to mostly cloudy skies sunday with highs in the upper 60s and 70s. Cooler weather and showers return to the forecast monday through wednesday of next week with 1 to 2 rain totals possible. Its baseball action tonight for the gamecocksas they host the first game of the skies sunday with highs in the upper 60s and 70s. Cooler weather and showers return to the forecast monday through wednesday of next week with 1 to 2 rain totals possible. Its baseball action tonight for the gamecocksas they host the first game of the more action from Founders Park coming up after the break in sports. Were in South Carolina ahead of tomorrows gop primary. And the big headline here is big slip in the polls for donald trump. In nevada. Clinton sanders in a dead heat for tomorrows caucuces and making their final arguments. And the government launches a big crackdkdn on those popular hoverboards. When we see you at going back to the Old Neighborhood can be hard sometimes. Walls have been built invisibly around the Old Neighborhood and that Police Brutality is used to keep folks hemmed in, and frankly, opportunity locked out. I spent my entire life in the civil rights movement. I came up in the naacp like my mom came up in the naacp, like Bernie Sanders came up with the congress of racial equality. Black lives matter. We need to combat institutional racism from top to bottom in a broken criminal justice system. Im supporting Bernie Sanders for president and all of us who have joined this campaign are there for the same reason. Hes always fought for a populus position of lets fight for all our families as if they are our own. Great danes here at founders carolina is. Lets take a look at some highlights. This is the first game in Founders Park. The name of the ballpark was changed during the off season. So this is no longer carolina stadium. A good crowd is on hand to enjoy a nice sunny day and a little baseball. The gamecocks get the first two runners on in the first inning with nobody out. But they fail to score as albanys stephen woods gets a pair of strikeouts. And gets l. T. Tolbert to ground out to end the inning. Again in the second inning. Usc has two men on for clark scolameiro. He sends a fly ball to left. Its deep enough for john jones to tag and score the first run of the season. One nothing gamecocks. Third inning. Albanys kevin donati lines one to right. Hopkins makes the catch. Then throws to first to double ip the base runner. First baseman alex destino is shaken up on the play. But he shakes it off and stays in the game. For jones. He finds the gap in right center. That clears the bases. Gamecocks go up four nothing. After innings. The score. Gamecocks , albany the gamecocks are on a mission this season. They failed to make the ncaa tournament last year for the First Time Since 1999. The coaches and players know theyll be under a lot of scrutiny every time they take the field. Chad its always pressure to perform well here. Im not looking at this year any different than i did last year, my second year, my third year. Its not any different to me. We want to perform at a high level. We want to be one of the best teams in the country. I know the expectations of south perform at a high level. Thats why we coach here, thats why our players come here. Alex we came up short of what we wanted last year. We just dont want to do that again. So were going to go out there something is just fundamentally broken when african a aricans are more likely to be arrested by police, and sentenced to longer prison terms, for doing the same thing that whites do. When too many encounters with Law Enforcement end tragically. We need investments in to counter generations of neglect. We have to face up to the hard truth of injustice and systemic racism. Im Hillary Clinton, and i approve this message. Developing news tonight. Mad dash. Hours before the vote in two critical states trump under fire for the iraq war, and Hillary Clinton fighting to hold off Bernie Sanders. Slamming apple. The feds fire back in a fiery battle over cracking the San Bernardino killers iphone, and now tru calling for a boycott. Verboard crackdowowafter dozens of fires, some burning homes to the ground, the government says enough. A major new warning that could lead to an outright ban. Walking free. After four decades locked in solitary confinement, a stunning twist in one of the most infamous cases in modern american history. And harper lee dies at 89. We remember the legendary elusive offer of to kill a mockingbird. Nightly news begins right now. Announcer this is nbc nightly news with lester holt reporting tonight from columbia, South Carolina. Good evening. On the eve of two big votes on the road to the white house, the