Voting is underway in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary, and Hillary Clinton is looking for a big victory and to win big over rival Bernie Sanders.
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That was in keeping with a tone set by Sanders after his loss in Nevada, when he and his campaign barely mentioned SC and instead focused on next week’s 11 state Super Tuesday collection of primaries and caucuses. As expected, Clinton dominated among black voters, claiming 87 percent of their votes to Sanders’s 13 percent according to exit polling. Sixty percent of Democratic voters in SC are reportedly black.
Sanders, expecting defeat yesterday, didn’t campaign in the state yesterday and turned his attention to some of the states that vote in Tuesday’s delegate-rich contests.
Sanders congratulated Clinton on her victory and reminded her that the campaign is just beginning. Clinton’s campaign stopped polling in SC a week before Saturday’s contest because they thought it was a waste of money given what they saw as an all-but-certain win.
The big state on Super Tuesday is Texas, which offers 222 delegates. “If all of you come out to vote and you bring your friends and your neighbors and your co-workers, we are going to win here in Texas”.
The huge margin of victory – she won almost 74 per cent of the vote – will extend her lead over Sanders in delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
“The future of the Democratic Party, the future of this country is involving young people in this process”, he said. In calling for those changes, she was delivering an implicit rebuke to businessman Donald Trump, a potential Republican challenger in the November general election, and making note of the historic significance should she become the first woman president of the U.S.
“No question, let me be very clear: we did really, really badly with older African American voters”, he said.
Sanders did not stay in SC on Saturday night.
Sanders attempted to spin his loss during an appearance on CBS’ “Face The Nation” by pointing to the Clintons’ history in the state.
“We are going to compete for every vote in every state”. She not only increased over Obama the share of blacks voting, she won more of their support than he did.
Sanders spent less time in the state than Clinton, but made a late run south on Friday, taking aim at her positions on trade and relationship with Wall Street. Clinton promised supporters to not take lightly her road ahead toward being the party’s nominee.
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Clinton added that Scandal star, Kerry Washington, cut new campaign ads for her White House bid. The truth is that Sanders can still win enough delegates from future states to clinch the nomination, but would have to defy poll numbers that show growing support nationwide for Clinton.
