(CN) - A month after effectively crushing his competition in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary, Donald Trump found himself losing ground in the state on Saturday through what one longtime political observer called "a coordinated national effort to deny Trump the nomination."
In February's primary, Trump won all but two of South Carolina's 46 counties, and was awarded all 50 of the state's delegates to the Republican National Convention.
But on Saturday, as the process to fill those delegate slots got underway, it was Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, third place finisher in the primary who was the big winner, taking four of the first six delegates seats filled at congressional district meetings in Florence and Greenwood, S.C.
Trump managed to have one of his supporters elected to a delegate seat, and the one remaining delegate chosen, a supporter of Sen. Marco Rubio, who suspended his campaign, said she will go to the convention uncommitted.
"It's depressing," said Will Folks, a one-time spokesman for former Gov. Mark Sanford and founder of the controversial, but always entertaining South Carolina political blog FITSNEWS.
Folks, who freely admits he believes the GOP needs to implode and be born anew as a "true pro-free market, pro individual" party, endorsed Trump before the South Carolina primary.
"But that was less about Donald Trump than about hastening the demise of a party I think has been lying to people for too long," he told Courthouse News.
"However, whether you like the guy or dislike the guy, are we now at a point where votes don't matter in this country?" Folks asked.
" I think it's sad, frankly, and I think it's bringing the Republican party, as we know it, to its day of reckoning," he continued.
Folks believes it's entirely possible that Cruz's apparent success at securing delegate loyalty in South Carolina will prove as ephemeral as Trump's popular-vote success in the primary. He also suggested the drum beat for an alternative to both men likely Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan is growing ever-louder.
"I hope they do have a contested election where they name Paul Ryan the prom king and [South Carolina Gov.] Nikki Haley his prom queen," Folks said. "I think it will be the death of the Republican party as we know it, and you know what? It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people."
"There's plenty of stuff I don't like about Donald Trump, but say what you want about him, a lot of people voted for him," he continued. "We're only three-quarters of the way through the primary process and he's already received more votes than Mitt Romney got in the general election of 2012 and he's going to end up getting tons more.
"At the same time, he's bringing new people into the process, so I think it's absolute insanity for [the Republican establishment to be doing what they are doing," Folks said.
Republican committees in all the states that have already held primaries and caucuses are now deep into the procedurals that determine who among their loyal members will travel to Cleveland this summer for the Republican National Convention and cast their vote in theory based on the popular vote in their state for the eventual nominee.