Hillary Clinton has won the South Carolina Democratic primary over rival Bernie Sanders in a victory which propels her into next week’s Super Tuesday voting in 11 states.
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This new message served Clinton well in SC where over the weekend she won a dominant victory, built on the strength of her support among black voters. Instead, Clinton took 80 percent of the votes of African-Americans, giving her an overwhelming victory as well as fulfilling CNN’sexit poll of a 3-to-1 win over Sanders.
“Tomorrow, this campaign goes national”, Clinton said.
With the victory, Clinton can claim a powerful advantage among black voters who could determine the outcome in a half-dozen Southern states that vote next. And in a pointed dig at Republican nominee Donald Trump, she said: “Despite what you hear, we don’t need to “make America great again”. He’s convinced a lot of people, and now’s the time where we have to address it. I believe a first-rate con artist is on the verge of taking over the party of (Abraham) Lincoln and (Ronald) Reagan, and, now or never, we need to remind people of what’s at stake here.
South Carolina Democratic voter Teri Faust, 59, said Clinton would be better able to take on Trump than Sanders, a USA senator from Vermont.
The big state on Super Tuesday is Texas, which offers 222 delegates.
Vermont should be no problem for Senator Bernie Sanders.
According to a Suffolk University poll released Sunday evening, the former secretary of state has the support of 50 percent of likely Democratic primary voters in the Bay State, leading Sanders’ with 42 percent.
Sanders, expecting defeat in SC on Saturday, left the state even before voting was finished and turned his attention to some of the states that vote in next Tuesday’s delegate-rich contests.
So Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in SC.
“The aircraft carrier is definitely shifting to the general election this week”, a top Democrat close to Clinton said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid getting ahead of the campaign and alienating Democrats who have yet to vote.
At a campaign victory party in state capital Columbia, supporters broke into raucous cheers as the race was called in her favour.
Clinton attended a closed-door fundraising event in October in Holyoke, but the Springfield rally was Clinton’s first public event in western Mass. during this campaign.
“And I’m going to be a president and a partner to help you keep going as far as you can”, she said to applause.
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Clinton picked up most of South Carolina’s 53 delegates, winning 39 to Sanders’ 14. Cruz asked parents if they would be pleased if their children spouted profanities in the manner of the brash billionaire, while Rubio mocked Trump as a “con artist” with “the worst spray tan in America”.
