Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has reclaimed front-runner status in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, as she is the projected victor in Saturday’s SC primary. African Americans made up 61 percent of the primary’s electorate, and Clinton bested Sanders 83 percent to 17 percent, according to the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the networks and Associated Press.
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Clinton’s win provided an important boost for her campaign – and a moment to wipe away bitter memories of her loss to Barack Obama in SC eight years ago.
After losing in New Hampshire, squeaking by in Iowa and winning decisively in Nevada, Ms. Clinton led by at least 25 percentage points over Vermont Sen.
While the Clinton camp had long indicated that SC would be a sure win, Clinton’s Democratic rival Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had made a big advertising push in the state, including a prominent radio ad that touted the support of director Spike Lee, an icon in black cinema. Clinton is looking to win by large margins in Southern states with large black populations, while Sanders wants to score victories in the Midwest and Northeast and stay close to Clinton in the South to avoid a blowout in the delegate race. “We are not taking anything for granted”. Sanders also did well among young voters in Nevada, as he had in previous voting states.
But still! Surely it had to be bad news that so many voters were anxious about how trustworthy Clinton is, right? And the vast majority of those voters – 84% – backed Clinton, according to exit polls. There are 59 delegates up for grabs in SC.
“On Super Tuesday the state that is going to be voting for the most delegates is the great state of Texas”, Sanders told the crowd at a Formula One racetrack. The night of her New Hampshire loss, her campaign even blasted out a memo stressing the importance of the primaries that come in March in effort to regain control of the narrative.
There was good news for Clinton, whose numbers on trust and credibility have lagged far behind Sanders in earlier contests. Sanders did not appear in the state at all Saturday, campaigning instead in Texas and Minnesota as voters in SC headed to the polls.
In two days, Super Tuesday, more states vote (12) and more delegates are at stake (1,460 in both parties) than on any other single day in the presidential primary campaign.
“If you wanted to do media campaigns in all of those states, you’d probably have to spend $50 million”, Sanders strategist Tad Devine said last week on the daily edition of Meet the Press on MSNBC.
Clinton won by eye-popping numbers among African-Americans, who preferred her by 6-to-1 over Sanders. “I went for someone I know”, said the housekeeper, who declined to give her name. Bill Clinton’s “explainer-in-chief” 2012 Democratic National Convention healed most wounds that remained, and Hillary Clinton sealed the deal by positioning herself as the logical heir to Obama’s policies- with 70% of those who voted Saturday saying they want the next president to continue those policies.
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The primary also comes just a day after the State Department released its penultimate batch of Clinton emails from her private server. Still, Clinton’s campaign sees a chance to build enough of a delegate lead to put the race out of reach during the sprint through March. It’s a message that has become more populist partly owing to the unexpected strength of her opponent, Vermont Sen.
