Hillary Clinton has won a thumping victory over left-winger Bernie Sanders – paving the way for their biggest showdown on Tuesday.
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Hillary Clinton is eyeing a decisive win in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential nomination race, with the hope of gaining momentum against Bernie Sanders before the upcoming high-stakes “Super Tuesday” contests.
Sanders, however, kept the race close among white voters, losing just 53% to 47%.
Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic primary in SC.
“Tomorrow, this campaign goes national!” “We are not taking anything, and we are not taking anyone, for granted”. “We need to show by everything we do that we really are in this together”. “Then and only then can America live up to its full potential, too”.
Nevada’s caucuses last week offered the first test of which Democratic candidate could win Latino voters, but a muddled collection of entrance and exit polls failed to provide a conclusive answer.
Both Clintons spent numerous days running up to the primary crisscrossing the state, and the former secretary of state picked up key endorsements, including that of U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of SC.
Sanders was ahead among voters between ages 18 and 29, and among white men.
“Let me be clear on one thing tonight”, Sanders said in a statement conceding in SC.
“This campaign is just beginning”, he said. “We pack up if we don’t win in OH”, he said on Fox News.
During a raucous victory rally, Clinton briefly reveled in her sweeping support from SC voters, hugging backers and posing with them for selfie photos.
“From Super Tuesday till the middle of March is going to be a critical time for the Sanders campaign”, said Michael Bitzer, a Catawba College political scientist.
When Sanders landed in Minneapolis, he told reporters the loss was all part of the process.
As he arrived in Rochester, Minnesota, he said “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose”.
“To South Carolina, to the volunteers at the heart of our campaign, to the supporters who power it: thank you”, Clinton wrote on Twitter. She also has a regional advantage that’s likely to become evident on Super Tuesday, where seven of the 11 states with Democratic contests are in the South.
Clinton’s 27.5 percent lead over Sanders in SC polls before Saturday, with 58.2 percent of the state’s Democratic support, is a much different scenario compared with eight years earlier.
Saturday’s result was a foregone conclusion of sorts, with Sanders bolting early Saturday for Texas and then Minnesota, two states in play next Tuesday when the Vermont senator needs to keep his head above water if he wants to challenge Clinton deeper into the nomination race.
The victory marks an impressive moment of redemption for Clinton who in 2008 lost badly in the state to Barack Obama – his win here serving as a turning point for his ultimately victorious campaign. Many said they felt she was the best candidate to carry on the legacy of the country’s first black president.
Indeed, as in previous states, Sanders won white voters focused on honesty, as well as those most concerned with a candidate who “cares about people like me”, by vast margins. Among older black voters, she secured 96 per cent.
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The South Carolina electorate was heavily supportive of President Obama, who beat Clinton in the state in the 2008 contest. Citing exit polls in South Carolina, CNN said African-American voters backed Clinton by a stunning 84 percent, against 16 percent for Sanders. Sanders carried the 17 percent of voters who wanted the next president to implement more liberal policies.
