In South Carolina, Joe Biden won the Democratic primary, beating other less likely candidates like Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson. His campaign focused a lot on getting more Black voters to participate because they are crucial for Democrats, especially in a potential rematch against Donald Trump in November. Biden’s team wanted to see how well they could get Black voters to turn out, as it would be important for his reelection chances.
“In 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency,” Biden said in a statement. “Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again — and making Donald Trump a loser — again.”
Joe Biden won the South Carolina Democratic primary by a big margin. The Associated Press declared him the winner at 7:23 P.M. because he had a clear lead in important areas across the state. He got all 55 of the state’s Democratic delegates.
This victory happened because Biden, as president, supported South Carolina going first in the Democratic primary. He said South Carolina is more racially diverse compared to Iowa and New Hampshire, which usually go first and have mostly white populations.
Even though South Carolina usually votes for Republicans, it has a significant Black population—26%. In the 2020 general election, Black voters were 11% of the national vote, and most of them supported Biden.
Biden wanted changes to the primary calendar. Now Nevada will be the second state to hold its primary, followed by Michigan on February 27, before Super Tuesday on March 5, when many states vote at once.
New Hampshire rejected the DNC’s plan and held a leadoff primary last month anyway. Biden didn’t campaign and his name wasn’t on the ballot, but still won by a sizable margin after supporters mounted a write-in campaign on his behalf.
South Carolina, where Biden has long held deep relationships with supporters and donors, also played a pivotal role in his 2020 campaign, where a big win revived a flagging effort in other early-voting states and propelled him to the nomination.
Biden was aided by longtime South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn whose 2020 endorsement served as a long-awaited signal to the state’s Black voters that Biden would be the right candidate to advocate for their interests. Clyburn remains a close Biden ally and said Saturday night that he believed New Hampshire’s delegates should be seated at the party’s convention this summer and that Democrats should avoid any further infighting.
Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve in the role, have consistently thanked South Carolina’s Democrats for their support. Biden was traveling this weekend in California and Nevada but called into a series of Black radio stations across South Carolina and told WWDM in Sumter, “The only reason I’m talking to you today as president of the United States of America is because of South Carolina. That is not hyperbole. That’s a fact.”
Campaigning in the state last week, the president said South Carolina was “the reason Donald Trump is a loser. And you’re the reason we’re going to win and beat him again,” framing the likely general election matchup with the GOP’s current front-runner.
Earlier in the day, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said, “We all know that we, because of the color of this, we, our great grandparents, our grandparents, could not always vote here.” Harrison is a South Carolina native who is Black.
“For this president to say, ‘Jaime, for the entirety of your life, we have started this process in Iowa and New Hampshire, and now, we’re going to start it in South Carolina’ — no other president before ever decided to touch that issue,” he added. “But Joe Biden did, and I will always be grateful to the president for giving us a chance, for seeing us, and understanding how much we matter.”
Black voters interviewed during the recent early voting period listed a range of reasons for supporting Biden, from his administration’s defense of abortion rights to appointing Black jurists and other minorities to the federal courts. Some echoed Biden’s warnings that Trump would threaten democracy as he continues to push lies that the 2020 vote was stolen.
“We can’t live with a leader that will make this into a dictatorship. We can’t live in a place that is not a democracy. That will be a fall for America,” said LaJoia Broughton, a 42-year-old small business owner in Columbia. “So my vote is with Biden. It has been with Biden and will continue to be with Biden.”
Some voters said they were concerned about the 81 year old Biden’s age, as many American have said they are in public polling. Trump is 77. Both men have had a series of public flubs that have fueled skepticism about their readiness.
“They’re as old as I am and to have these two guys be the only choices, that’s kind of difficult,” said Charles Trower, a 77-year-old from Blythewood, South Carolina. “But I would much rather have President Biden than even consider the other guy.”