Clinton now will roll with a head of steam into the Democratic primary on February 27 in SC – where she is heavily favored to win – and possibly exit the Palmetto State with victories in three of the first four states.
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With the United States presidential race hotting up, controversial Republican front-runner Donald Trump steamrolled his rivals to clinch the SC primary while Democrat Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Bernie Sanders in Nevada to boost her lacklustre campaign.
In her victory speech, Clinton appeared to fault Sanders for always sticking exclusively to the issue of economic inequality.
Clinton’s win in Nevada means she will pick up most of the state’s delegates.
Entrance polls of Nevada voters found that a third said the economy was their major concern, while a quarter cited income inequality – the centerpiece of Sanders’ campaign.
Bernie Sanders, by his own words, has based his entire campaign on his ability to create high voter turnout, bringing young voters and lower-income voters to the polls in record numbers, many for the first time.
Clyburn, the No. 3 ranked Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives and the only Democrat in Congress from SC, stayed neutral in the bitter 2008 race between Clinton and Barack Obama. She now holds a sizable lead among those elected leaders and party officials. Clinton led in all but two states – MA and Sanders’ home state of Vermont. Her message of solidarity with minority voters stood in contrast to Mr Sanders’ more abstruse attacks on Wall St and the campaign finance system. In Houston, Clinton said she respects Sanders “passion and commitment” but argued that he can’t deliver on his promises of single-payer health care and tuition-free public college. “I think that’s, you know, a question that people are trying to sort through”. Those superdelegates can switch candidates and Sanders team says that if the count is close, they plan to lobby delegates from the states he wins to change their positions.
“We saw so much great activity the last week and it turned out to be more than enough”, she said.
“The people of Iowa, New Hampshire and SC have spoken and I respect their decision”.
But one image lingered from his packed rally in Greenville; among the sea of excited faces, only a very few were black.
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But with roughly 70% of Republicans in national polls declining to back Mr Trump, Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio tried to cast themselves as the one candidate around whom what Mr Rubio calls the “alternative-to-Donald-Trump vote” can coalesce.
