Candidates focus on South Carolina and crucial minority vote

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Candidates focus on South Carolina and crucial minority vote

The Associated Press


MILWAUKEE (AP) — Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were reaching out to the key black and Latino vote on Friday after a debate that marked a campaign shift toward states with more minority voters. Most candidates from both parties were focusing on South Carolina, whose primaries later this month begin the critical race for southern voters.

Republicans crisscrossed South Carolina looking to derail billionaire Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who each came to the state with a burst of momentum after the first two nomination contests. In March's primary schedule alone, 58 percent of the Republican Party's delegate total will be at stake.

CBS said that all of the remaining major Republican candidates will be on stage for their next debate Saturday night in South Carolina. Participating will be Trump, Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Dr. Ben Carson and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Bush on Friday defended his decision to bring his brother, former President George W. Bush, to South Carolina to help him campaign. Bush told ABC it wasn't a sign of desperation, as Trump has suggested.

The race for both parties turns now to Nevada, South Carolina and other more diverse states including Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas.

In Thursday's debate, the Democratic rivals were animated on a fundamental question facing their party: has President Barack Obama gone far enough in his policies?

Clinton, who has cast herself as the rightful heir to Obama's legacy, accused Sanders of diminishing the president's record. Sanders has suggested Obama hadn't succeeded in closing the gap between Congress and the American people — something Obama has acknowledged.

"The kind of criticism I hear from Senator Sanders, I expect from Republicans. I do not expect it from someone seeking the Democratic nomination," Clinton said.

Sanders responded by noting that Clinton ran against Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

Long viewed as the overwhelming front-runner in the Democratic race, Clinton has been caught off-guard by Sanders' connection with Americans frustrated by the current political and economic systems. The former secretary of state's connections to Wall Street have given Sanders an easy way to link her to his call for a "revolution."

Clinton's campaign has argued that the Vermont senator's appeal is mostly limited to the white, liberal voters who gave Sanders a win in New Hampshire and a close second-place finish in Iowa.

Seeking to boost his support with minorities, Sanders called for reforms to a "broken criminal justice system" that incarcerates a disproportionate number of minorities.

Clinton concurred on a need to address a criminal justice system, but she cast her proposals for fighting racial inequality as broader than his.

"We're going to emphasize education, jobs and housing," said Clinton, who was endorsed earlier in the day by the political action committee of the Congressional Black Caucus.

On Friday, Sanders received the support of the Black Lives Matter movement in his home state. The event came a day after congressman and long-time civil rights leader John Lewis endorsed Clinton for president and said he doesn't recall meeting Sanders during key events of the 1960s civil rights era.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-13