Biden Gets Welcome ‘24 Win in Key ‘20 State

The state that rescued Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020 came through for the president again Saturday, as South Carolina Democrats overwhelmingly voted to renominate Biden for president and gave the president a strong start to his reelection campaign.

The Associated Press called the race for Biden with just 6% of the vote counted and the incumbent president having more than 97% of the vote. His primary challengers, Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and self-help guru Marianne Williamson, were far behind.

South Carolina’s primary was the first official nominating contest for Democrats, who – egged on by Biden – moved the state up in the primary schedule. The shift was meant to give more power to a state with a higher percentage of Black voters, a key part of the Democratic base and the voter group that gave Biden his victory there in 2020.

Four years ago, Biden’s campaign was flagging. Having placed fourth in the Iowa caucuses, and fifth in New Hampshire, Biden appeared headed towards an early exit from the presidential campaign. But buoyed by Black voters – especially Black women – Biden earned nearly half of the primary vote in South Carolina in a five-way race, propelling him ultimately to the Democratic nomination.

The win is a welcome boost for the beleaguered candidate, whose approval ratings are in the high 30s or low 40s, and is facing what is shaping up as a close race against former President Donald Trump, currently his party’s front-runner for the nomination.

Despite the expected primary victory in South Carolina, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made a concerted effort to campaign there, visiting the Palmetto State the last two weekends. Biden spoke last month at Mother Emanuel AME church, where a white supremacist murdered nine people in 2015. Harris also visited South Carolina three times since the beginning of the year, speaking at college campuses about student debt relief and abortion rights.

Democrats have been concerned about polling that shows a retrenchment in Black support, with the reliably Democratic voters group disappointed in what Biden has been able to achieve. That has been a source of frustration for Biden operatives, who note that the president has appointed record numbers of Black people to judicial posts and presided over low Black unemployment.

But early voting in South Carolina suggested that the narrative on an unenthusiastic Democratic base and disenchanted Black voters is untrue, Jay Parmley, executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party, told reporters Saturday afternoon.

Nearly 52,000 people cast early ballots this year – fewer than the 77,000 who did so in 2020 but still a very strong showing given that a Biden victory was all but assured, Parmley said. Further, 76.5% of the early vote was made up of Black voters, 13% higher than in 2020, he added.

“We were picked to go first because our voters give a damn,” Parmley said. “Our voters are enthusiastic and energized.” The party held 150 events in their “we go first” bus tour and made 675,442 phone calls to voters, party officials said.

“In an uncompetitive early vote … we have seen a very solid early vote. I’ll take this number any day of the week,” Parmley said.

South Carolinians had the choice of voting in either the Democratic or Republican presidential primary, but not both. Supporters of GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley sent text messages to voters urging them to eschew the Democratic nominating contest for the Feb. 24 GOP primary, when their votes could help the former South Carolina governor beat former President Donald Trump there. It’s unclear how many Democrats or independent voters decided to save their votes for the GOP primary.

Biden also handily won the New Hampshire primary as a write-in candidate with 64% of the vote – despite not campaigning in the Granite State or running any ads there. Phillips, who made a big effort in New Hampshire, got less than 20% of the vote.

Since New Hampshire bucked Democratic National Committee rules, holding its primary Jan. 24 despite the fact that South Carolina had been given the role of first primary in the nation, no delegates from that contest will be awarded at the Democratic National Convention. But the win was good optics for Biden.

At a visit to his Delaware campaign headquarters Saturday, Biden said the contrast between him and Trump would become more clear as the November election gets closer.

“Folks are starting to focus in,” he said, citing a Quinnipiac University national poll showing him leading Trump by 6 percentage points as well as two Pennsylvania polls showing him ahead in the Keystone State.

“This is not just a campaign. This is more of a mission,” Biden told the group before he headed out for a West Coast trip. “We cannot, we cannot, we cannot lose his campaign – for the good of the country. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It’s not about me, it goes well beyond me.”