But, down in SC, although he garnered the support of white voters over Hillary Clinton by a 20-point margin, white voters making up only 35 percent of the electorate couldn’t have given Sanders the slightest chance in edging out the strong Black electorate.
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The Washington Post said “With the victory in South Carolina, Clinton can claim a powerful advantage among black voters who could determine the outcome in a half-dozen Southern states that vote next”. “We are not taking anything, and we are not taking anyone, for granted”.
It is Mrs Clinton’s third victory in four contests, after wins in Iowa and Nevada.
SC voters, he said, “have started Hillary Clinton on her way to the White House”. Speaking in Minnesota in the wake of the loss, he promised his campaign is about “transforming America” and thinking about what sort of country “we want to become”. Soon after polls closed she told supporters: “You sent a message – in America when we stand together, there is no barrier too big to break”. Notably, Clinton’s victory was significantly larger than Barack Obama’s primary victory in the state in 2008, when he beat Clinton by capturing 78 percent of the vote.
Clinton’s victory came at the end of a day that saw Republican candidates firing insults at each other from Super Tuesday states.
Sanders acknowledged getting “decimated” in SC, but said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his campaign is “looking to the future, not looking back” as the contests move outside the South. “You’re going to see us doing much better in NY state, where I think we have a shot to win, in California and in MI”. “This campaign is just beginning”, Mr Sanders said in a statement.
Senator Sanders of Vermont has vowed to keep on fighting in the run up to Super Tuesday. With 53 delegates at stake, Clinton will receive 39, Sanders at least 14. The Texas senator told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “there is no doubt that if Donald steamrolls through Super Tuesday, wins everywhere with big margins, that he may well be unstoppable”.
Clinton said she was not taking anything for granted after crushing Democratic rival Bernie Sanders on Saturday by 48 points and likely setting herself up for a good “Super Tuesday” night on March 1, a key date in the nomination battle.
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Exit polls showed 6 in 10 voters in the primary were black, by far the largest proportion in any of the contests so far. And, according to exit polls, he barely made inroads with black voters there. Sixty percent of Democratic voters in SC are reportedly black.
