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. The huge margin of victory – she won almost 74 per cent of the vote – will extend her lead over Mr Sanders in delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
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Both candidates enjoy unassailable leads in one state each: Sanders in Vermont, which he represents as senator, enjoys 75% support, while in Arkansas, where Clinton was first lady during husband Bill Clinton’s stint as governor, she enjoys a similarly unassailable lead.
When asked which candidate they thought “can win in November”, an overwhelming 79 percent said Clinton, with only 21 percent putting their faith in Sanders to defeat the eventual Republican nominee.
It is Mrs Clinton’s third victory in four contests, after wins in Iowa and Nevada.
“I want us to break down the barriers that stand in the way of people being successful, that stand in the way of America fulfilling our potential”, Clinton told an enthusiastic crowd in Springfield, MA.
Clinton beat Sanders with black voters in the state by a greater margin than Barack Obama beat her in 2008.
Clinton is now primed for Super Tuesday, the 11-state Democratic battle that will put Clinton on friendly and familiar territory in the Deep South.
Taking the stage at the University of SC to cheers of “Madam President”, Mrs Clinton promised to continue courting voters aggressively in the coming weeks, but she also began looking past Mr Sanders to leading Republican candidate Donald Trump.
“In politics on a given night, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Tuesday, over 800 delegates are at stake and we intend to win many, many of them”.
A lot of those Southern states “are states that we expect to do well in”, said Jen Palmieri, the campaign’s communications director.
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With an insurmountable deficit, Sanders spent much less time than Clinton in SC last week. Nobody is showing up, and Bernie Sanders is over. The whole process is murky with pledged and unpledged delegates, including super delegates, who can vote as they please in a “brokered” convention without regard to grassroots sentiment.
