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South Carolina is as soon as once more handing President Biden a poll field victory.
The Associated Press on Saturday projected that the president would win South Carolina’s 2024 Democratic presidential primary, with the information service making its name minutes after the polls closed within the Palmetto State at 7 p.m. ET.
The fast projection got here as no shock, as Biden was anticipated to trounce his two long-shot Democratic primary challengers, Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Marianne Williamson, the best-selling creator and non secular adviser who’s making her second straight White House run.
South Carolina, the place Black voters play an out-sized position in state Democratic politics, for the primary time led off the get together’s official presidential nominating calendar.
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President Joe Biden speaks on the First within the Nation Celebration held by the South Carolina Democratic Party on the State Fairgrounds, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr.) (AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr.)
Biden orchestrated an upending of the Democratic National Committee’s long-running nominating calendar to position the Palmetto State first.
“If you ever doubt that the power to change America is in your hands, remember this. You proved it. You’re the reason I am president. That’s right. You’re the reason Kamala Harris is a historic vice president,” Biden emphasised final weekend as he spoke at a serious South Carolina Democratic Party gathering.
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Four years in the past, the then-former vp was reeling, after a fourth place end within the Iowa caucuses and a fifth place displaying within the New Hampshire primary.
Biden rebounded with a distant second place end to Sen. Bernie Sanders in Nevada’s caucuses, which was adopted by a landslide victory within the South Carolina primary. Biden’s demolishing of the remainder of the sector of Democratic rivals — boosted largely by the assist of longtime Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina — rocketed Biden in direction of the get together’s nomination and finally the White House.
Then-former Vice President Joe Biden is flanked by his spouse Jill and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, as Biden provides his victory speech following a landslide victory within the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary on Feb. 29, 2020 (Fox News)
National Democrats for years knocked each Iowa and New Hampshire — which led each nationwide events’ nominating calendars for half a century — as unrepresentative of the get together as a complete as a result of the states have largely Caucasian populations with few main city areas. Nevada and South Carolina, which in current cycles voted third and fourth on the calendar, are way more various than both Iowa or New Hampshire.
While Republicans did not make main adjustments to their 2024 schedule, the DNC final yr overwhelmingly authorised a calendar proposed by Biden to maneuver South Carolina to the lead place. The president and supporters of the brand new calendar argued that it will empower minority voters, upon whom Democrats have lengthy relied however have at instances taken without any consideration.
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Plenty of political analysts additionally noticed the transfer as a thanks from Biden to Clyburn and South Carolina for the position they performed in his 2020 election.
While Iowa finally complied with the DNC, New Hampshire adhered to a half-century-old state regulation that mandates their presidential primary goes first.
New Hampshire held its primary for each events on Jan. 23, and the Democratic contest was unsanctioned by the DNC, with no delegates at stake.
Biden did not file to position his identify on the New Hampshire primary poll and did not marketing campaign within the state. But he nonetheless received over 60% of the vote within the contest, because of a well-funded write-in effort by prime Granite State Democrats.
Biden was on the poll within the Palmetto State, and South Carolina Democratic Party chair Christale Spain, pointing to the president’s dominance in a state the place he is had lengthy ties, advised Fox News on Friday that “this primary is contested, but it isn’t competitive.”
And spotlighting the importance of going first within the calendar, she mentioned “it means, for the first time in this country’s history, that Black voters get to have their voices heard first in the process. Not later on. That southern voters get to go first. Rural voters get to go first. So it’s a huge deal.”
Vice President Kamala Harris headlines a Biden/Harris re-election marketing campaign occasion on Feb. 2, 2024 in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on the eve of the eve of the state’s Democratic presidential primary. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser )
Vice President Harris, on the eve of the primary, highlighted the importance of the state’s new leadoff place.
“South Carolina, you are the first primary in the nation and President Biden and I are counting on you,” Harris mentioned at a marketing campaign occasion at South Carolina State University.
“Are you ready to make your voices heard?” the vp requested the gang gathered Friday on the traditionally Black college.
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The president enjoys the backing of the DNC as he seeks a second time period within the White House, and nationwide get together chair Jaime Harrison, again in his dwelling state, advised Fox News Digital on Saturday morning in Columbia, South Carolina that a part of Biden’s mission within the primary was to shore up assist from Black voters, a key Democratic Party constituency that boosted him 4 years in the past.
“This president wanted to send a signal to black folks, not only here in South Carolina, but across the nation, that we see you, we hear you and you matter. That is why it’s important for the president and the vice president and the first lady and the second gentleman to come into a state and to show up even when they know that they’re going to win. And that they’re going to win decisively,” Harrison mentioned.
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