A group of South Carolina Republicans intends to launch an effort to get Republicans in the state to vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) in the Feb. 29 Democratic primary. According to The Post and Courier, the officials behind the plan believe Sanders is the weakest general election threat to Trump. In lieu of voting for Trump, which isn't possible since the state decided to cancel its GOP primary, the officials claim the plan would still enable people to support the president by delivering him an easy-to-defeat opponent. “I think we can easily affect the outcome. This is going to catch on like wildfire,” Greenville GOP chairman Nate Leupp told the newspaper. “People have been waiting and waiting for 2020 to come along to vote for Trump, and now they can’t... But they can still help Trump.” Leupp also said the plan to promote the “most socialistic, liberal candidate running” would convince state Democrats to change the state's open primary to a closed one so it “protects them as well as the Republican brand.”

The group will announce the effort at a Thursday press conference. South Carolina GOP Executive Director Hope Walker told the newspaper the state's broader Republican party was not involved in the effort, and it would not be taking an “official stand on this matter.” S.C. state director for Sanders’ campaign, Jessica Bright, said Trump and the GOP “have always been afraid to run against Bernie Sanders” and called the effort “more of the same.”