Biden rolls to big projected South Carolina win, buoyed by black voter support

By Joseph Ax and Trevor Hunnicutt

 

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden listens to the introductory speakers during a campaign event at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., February 29, 2020. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

 

GREENVILLE, S.C. (Reuters) - An outpouring of black voter support propelled Joe Biden to a convincing projected victory in South Carolina’s Democratic primary on Saturday, resurrecting his faltering White House bid and giving the former vice president a chance to present himself as the moderate alternative to front-runner Bernie Sanders.

 

Television networks and Edison Research, which conducted exit polls, projected Biden as the winner as soon as voting closed in the Southern state, while U.S. Senator Sanders of Vermont appeared headed to a distant second-place finish.

 

Exit polls showed the former vice president beating Sanders among a broad range of demographic and ideological groups, including those who identified themselves as "very liberal."

 

With 30% of the precincts reporting, Biden had 52% of the vote to Sanders' 18%. Billionaire activist Tom Steyer had 12% and all of the other contenders were well behind with single digits.

 

The win gives Biden a burst of momentum as the Democratic race to find a challenger to Republican President Donald Trump broadens quickly, with Super Tuesday primaries in 14 states in three days that will award one-third of the available national delegates.

 

The commanding margin will allow Biden, vice president under former President Barack Obama, to argue he is the most electable moderate alternative to Sanders, a democratic socialist whose surging campaign has rattled a Democratic establishment worried he is too far left to beat Trump in November.

 

It will also raise questions about the continued viability of most of the other contenders. Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar all were projected to finish well out of the running, with dwindling chances to mount a comeback.

 

Biden and all of the Democratic contenders will face competition for the first time on Tuesday from billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has blanketed the country with half a billion dollars in advertising. Bloomberg skipped the first four state primaries.

 

Biden desperately needed a win after poor showings in the first two nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire and finishing second in Nevada. He had viewed South Carolina, where his popularity among the state's big bloc of black voters proved decisive, as his "firewall" against disaster.

 

Sanders, with his unabashed populist message of ending economic inequality, had grown stronger with each contest, finishing in a virtual tie for first in Iowa with former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Buttigieg, before notching wins in New Hampshire and Nevada.

 

Biden, a mainstream Democrat with decades' experience on the U.S. political stage, was powered in South Carolina by support from a broad range of voters, including men and women, black and white, middle-aged and old, those with and without college degrees, independent, liberal and conservative, exit polls showed.

 

The data showed him with 60% of African-American support, well ahead of 17% for Sanders. It also showed Biden beating Sanders, who has based his argument on his ability to bring out new voters, among those who were voting in a Democratic primary for the first time.

 

Biden was projected to win 15 of the 54 pledged delegates in South Carolina, with more to be allocated. No other candidate was projected to have won any delegates in the state. Heading into the primary, Sanders had won 54 delegates, Buttigieg 26 and Biden 15.

 

NARROWING PATH FOR RIVALS

 

Biden was not the only candidate for whom South Carolina and Super Tuesday may represent make-or-break moments in what has been a frequently shifting campaign.

 

Buttigieg and Senators Klobuchar of Minnesota and Warren of Massachusetts appeared likely to finish well out of the running in South Carolina, where exit polls showed them finishing in low single digits among black voters.

 

The projected third-place finish for Steyer came after he spent heavily on ads in South Carolina - but it was unclear if he could compete nationally.

 

Nearly eight of 10 voters in South Carolina said they had a favourable view of Biden, compared with five of 10 who saw rival Sanders favourably, exit polls showed.

 

The polls also found about six of 10 of South Carolina voters said influential black congressman James Clyburn's endorsement of Biden on Wednesday was a factor in their decision.

 

    About half want a candidate who will return to Obama's policies, a key argument of Biden.

 

(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Trevor Hunnicutt in Greenville, South Carolina; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis in Saint George, South Carolina, Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Writing by John Whitesides and Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-01

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

 

 

Quick, load the new attack weapons, take sights off Sanders and onto Biden.

Good SC victory speech by Joe. I saw at least two things in it I've never seen in a Trump speech; gratefulness and empathy.

17 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

Good SC victory speech by Joe. I saw at least two things in it I've never seen in a Trump speech; gratefulness and empathy.

Make that three: Decency.

 

Dignity as well keep it up joe!!

 $500m in ad buys by one candidate this early on makes this an auction not an election.

 the election of Trump proved that many things are possible in the USA, but electing a socialist is not one of them imo..

Congrats Joe on your first primary win in three attempts at running for President. And they claim he has electability? Hahahaha

 

If you want rid of Trump in November Biden/ Harris is the way to go.

3 hours ago, phkauf said:

Congrats Joe on your first primary win in three attempts at running for President. And they claim he has electability? Hahahaha

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html

JOKES on you ! hahahaha

Such a strange path leading toward Super Tuesday:

 

a botched caucus in Iowa, then primary in New Hampshire, caucus in Nevada, followed now by the South Carolina primary.

 

If the fortunes and continuing viability of the various candidates are gonna be determined by what voters in THOSE 4 states think, it's hardly anything close to a reasonable or representative sampling of the U.S. electorate at large!!!!  Yet that's apparently where it's often de facto decided who can carry forward to campaign in the vast remaining other state primaries around the country.

 

Biden's just lucky he happened to have South Carolina to pull his chestnuts out of the fire in the nick of time, because yet another loss there would have shot any remaining chance held by his campaign -- even though the vast majority of the U.S. would not yet have even had a chance to vote yet.  There's something rather unsettling about that whole affair.

 

 

Edited March 1, 20206 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

10 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Such a strange path leading toward Super Tuesday:

 

a botched caucus in Iowa, then primaries in New Hampshire and Nevada, followed now by South Carolina.

 

If the fortunes and continuing viability of the various candidates are gonna be determined by what voters in THOSE 4 states think, it's hardly anything close to a reasonable or representative sampling of the U.S. electorate at large!!!!  Yet that's apparently where it's often de facto decided who can carry forward to campaign in the vast remaining other state primaries around the country.

 

Biden's just lucky he happened to have South Carolina to pull his chestnuts out of the fire in the nick of time, because yet another loss there would have shot any remaining chance held by his campaign -- even though the vast majority of the U.S. would not yet have even had a chance to vote yet.  There's something rather unsettling about that whole affair.

 

 

Wrong! Nevada is not a primary. It was same as Iowa, a caucus. More importantly is the SC populations make up is non-white.  I will wait until a canidate wins, American way.

Edited March 1, 20206 yr by earlinclaifornia

3 minutes ago, earlinclaifornia said:

Wrong! Nevada is not a primary. It was same as Iowa, a caucus. More importantly is the SC populations make up is non-white. 

 

Thanks for the correction. I've edited it above re Nevada... But that only makes it WORSE.... Caucuses are a poor/unrepresentative means of a state choosing a party nominee. And it doesn't change my underlying point -- what business do THOSE 4 states have being the de facto deciders of what candidates are viable enough to continue thru the rest of the nation's primaries?

 

So a candidate does poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, and then they're effectively out?  HUH???

 

 

38 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Thanks for the correction. I've edited it above re Nevada... But that only makes it WORSE.... Caucuses are a poor/unrepresentative means of a state choosing a party nominee. And it doesn't change my underlying point -- what business do THOSE 4 states have being the de facto deciders of what candidates are viable enough to continue thru the rest of the nation's primaries?

 

So a candidate does poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, and then they're effectively out?  HUH???

 

 

I’m more concerned over the Electoral College overriding the votes cast by the majority of citizens.

 

I’m guessing you don’t have a problem with that.

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I’m more concerned over the Electoral College overriding the votes cast by the majority of citizens.

 

I’m guessing you don’t have a problem with that.

 

I actually think whomever receives the majority vote should win. However, the prospects for a constitutional amendment to make that happen would appear to be virtually non-existent.

 

So the president should be elected by California and New York, and sod the rest of the country?  I give the founding fathers credit for thinking ahead.

31 minutes ago, lungbing said:

So the president should be elected by California and New York, and sod the rest of the country?  I give the founding fathers credit for thinking ahead.

 

IMHO, the president should be elected by a majority of Americans, regardless of where they choose to live. If half the country ended up living in Mississippi, my answer would be the same.  Each and every one counts as one American and should have one vote counted equally, regardless of where they live. And obviously I'm talking about the presidential election, not state-specific elections.

 

Edited March 1, 20206 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

16 hours ago, earlinclaifornia said:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html

JOKES on you ! hahahaha

Similar polls had Hillary crushing Trump. So hang your hat on those, while I get ready for four more years of DJT!!

And those polls along with $2 gets you a coffee at Starbucks these days (at least in America, $3 in Thailand).

34 minutes ago, phkauf said:

Similar polls had Hillary crushing Trump. So hang your hat on those, while I get ready for four more years of DJT!!

And those polls along with $2 gets you a coffee at Starbucks these days (at least in America, $3 in Thailand).

Actually she did crush Trump by a handsome 3 million votes. Just that the archaic antiquated electoral college got him the job undeservingly. 
 

5 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Actually she did crush Trump by a handsome 3 million votes. Just that the archaic antiquated electoral college got him the job undeservingly. 
 

Haha again with this nonsensical argument. The rules of the game have been in place for over 200 years, she knew how things worked and just played it poorly. Maybe instead of trying to run up the popular vote in places like California, she went to Michigan or Wisconsin she would have won those states. But she didn't and lost and that is that.

On 3/1/2020 at 5:45 AM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I actually think whomever receives the majority vote should win. However, the prospects for a constitutional amendment to make that happen would appear to be virtually non-existent.

 

Not with trump in power with the cowed senate groveling in fear of a trump tweet with trump out I see possible change and hopefully consequences for encouraging foreign interference lots of weaknesses have been exposed by trumps corruption hopefully that and trump will be delt with joe has the experience to be a good president and get the ship of state back on course 

Edited March 2, 20206 yr by Tug

6 minutes ago, Tug said:

Not with trump in power with the cowed senate groveling in fear of a trump tweet with trump out I see possible change and hopefully consequences for encouraging foreign interference lots of weaknesses have been exposed by trumps corruption hopefully that and trump will be delt with joe has the experience to be a good president and get the ship of state back on course 

 

I wasn't following Buttigieg too closely, because I never thought he had a chance of prevailing. But in the news reports today re his dropping out of the race, there was a mention of him having had a proposal to scrap the Electoral College deal.... 

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/448510-buttigieg-doubles-down-on-scrapping-electoral-college-its-undemocratic

 

Quote

"At the end of the day, I think most Americans, of any party, ought to be able to get on board with the idea that one person, one vote, counting equally, is the fairest way to choose our president."

 

I think I, unknowingly, used almost exactly the same words and rationale in a post here the other day.... 

On 3/1/2020 at 2:28 AM, Jonnapat said:

If you want rid of Trump in November Biden/ Harris is the way to go.

Where did we hear that before? Oh wait , the DNC and Hillary. "Hillary is the only one to get rid of trump"

   The DNC and Obama told Biden to sit down and let Hillary run 2016 and like a good little boy he did. Now he will be our Champion ???? 

To me it sounds like he is very good at taking direction.

Edited March 2, 20206 yr by sirineou

On 3/1/2020 at 8:24 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

IMHO, the president should be elected by a majority of Americans, regardless of where they choose to live. If half the country ended up living in Mississippi, my answer would be the same.  Each and every one counts as one American and should have one vote counted equally, regardless of where they live. And obviously I'm talking about the presidential election, not state-specific elections.

 

 

The problem with that line of reasoning is you always risk the 2 wolves and sheep deciding who to eat for dinner problem. The wolves will quickly devour the sheep until there is no longer any balance. There are many more people living in the cities than in the rural areas, but both are absolutely essential for a strong, functioning country. If you don't give priority to smaller areas, then they eventually become meaningless in elections, despite their great importance overall.

 

So my feeling is exactly opposite of you. I think only considering the popular vote is very short sighted, and one of the main reasons the US system is as resillient as it is, is specifically because of the Electoral College. It would be a huge mistake to go to a strictly popular vote system.  Everyone has the same opportunity. If you really want your vote to count more, nothing stops you from moving to Wyoming. You have the same right to live there as anyone else. But if you value living in Los Angeles more than voting power, well...it's not like the math is hidden. You know the algorithm going in.