Clinton received a big boost from black voters who accounted for six in ten primary voters, according to the exit polls, and Clinton won more than eight in 10 of their votes, a crushing score.
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She was 47.5 percent ahead of Bernie Sanders, a shellacking if ever there was one. Although Sanders said before the primary that he had not given up on SC, he was never close to challenging Clinton in the state – which voters noticed, the L.A. Times reported.
“We, tonight, have started Hillary Clinton on her way to the White House”, said representative James E. Clyburn, the state’s most powerful black Democrat, as he introduced Hillary at a victory rally here.
Republicans vote in 13 states on Tuesday, and the four challengers to Donald Trump, the real estate billionaire who is leading in the polls and has won three of the four early states so far, may face pressures to drop out if they can not steal some of Trump’s thunder. Sen. Ted.
“I think we do have a path to victory”, he said, adding that California and NY later in the primary season are also potential wins.
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. Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers. She won the support of almost nine in 10 black voters, crucial Democratic backers who had abandoned her for Mr Obama in 2008.
Sanders, expecting defeat in SC on Saturday, left the state even before voting was finished and turned his attention to some of the states that vote in next Tuesday’s delegate-rich contests. He was campaigning in Minnesota on Saturday night and was en route when the polls closed.
He vowed to fight on aggressively, saying: “This campaign is just beginning”.
On the Republican side, voters will cast ballots in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake on Super Tuesday.
When Sanders landed in Minneapolis, he told reporters the loss was all part of the process. As Nate Cohn writes in The New York Times, if Sanders can’t then go on to win major victories outside the southern voting block, he’s virtually certain to lose. 43 percent of the electorate agreed race relations in this country had gotten worse; 71 percent of them voted for Hillary Clinton.
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It appears that Black voters were a key factor in what’s predicted to be a huge win for Clinton.
