Exit polls cited by CNN showed Clinton with a massive 80 percent support among African-Americans who voted on Saturday, while Sanders topped Clinton by a 60 percent-40 percent margin among white voters.
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Hillary Clinton has won the South Carolina Democratic primary, capturing a state where she suffered a devastating loss just eight years ago.
Mr Sanders immediately congratulated his rival, while vowing to fight on for the party’s presidential nomination.
Clinton’s win Saturday night was fueled by strong support from minority voters, giving her campaign a jolt heading into Super Tuesday when 11 states hold Democratic primaries or caucuses.
Victories on Tuesday may propel back to inevitability Clinton, the former secretary of state thought to be the front-runner but who has faced a surprisingly strong challenge from Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win a primary.
Many black voters had been angered in 2008 by Ms Clinton, and her husband Bill Clinton, by what was seen as a graceless and dismissive response to Mr Obama’s win. But the problem for Sanders looking forward is that numerous states voting on March 1-Super Tuesday-look more like SC than they do like New Hampshire. In her speech she thanked the voters who gave it to her and told her supporters she was taking her campaign national. But he is seen as a more traditional candidate that would allow the campaign to focus on numerous same swing states then-Sen. “This campaign is just beginning”.
Early results of exit polls taken for The Associated Press and television networks find that Clinton won the support of 8 in 10 African-Americans, who made up the majority of voters in Saturday’s primary.
Clinton’s sweeping victory suggested SC voters had put aside any lingering tensions from her heated 2008 contest with Obama. “Now it’s on to Super Tuesday”, Sanders said in a statement. Clinton won 86% of the black vote, an even bigger percentage than President Obama did in 2008.
Because Democrats apportion delegates proportionally, Sanders is simply hoping to stay close to Clinton in the South. But he’s focusing most of his attention on states in the Midwest and Northeast, including his home state of Vermont.
Sanders had a good showing with young people, who comprise his main voting base.
“We are fighting the fight for the survival of the working class of this country”, he said on Friday morning at a rally in Hibbing, Minnesota.
But the senator from Vermont, a state where about 1 per cent of the population is black, lacks Clinton’s deep ties to the African-American community.
Clinton struck a populist tone as she spoke too, backed by younger voters behind her on stage – a demographic she’s struggled to capture over Sanders. She won a decisive victory in SC. “But we do need to make America whole again”.
Clinton’s top aides are confident they will run sizable delegate totals in the South, winning states like Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. “Sanders on running a great race”, Clinton said to her supporters. Poll after poll has given her the label of the unliked and untrusted candidate.
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Looking beyond next Tuesday, he is also focusing on states like OH and Minnesota that vote later in the crucial month of March, during which a whopping 45 percent of all delegates to the nominating convention are up for grabs.
