South Carolina Democrats vote as Biden looks for win to boost flagging campaign - The Guardian

Voting is under way in the crucial early Democratic presidential primary state of South Carolina, where Joe Biden is hoping for a convincing victory to reinvigorate his flailing campaign and buoy centrists against the progressive frontrunner, Bernie Sanders.

The Biden campaign has long viewed South Carolina, the first state where African American voters will hold a significant sway in the result, as a way to boost his presidential run after poor early results. But anything less than a convincing victory could well be the beginning of the end.

At an event in the state capital Columbia on Friday afternoon, Biden exuded confidence as he delivered a speech outside a local barber shop. His remarks focused mostly on gun control, an issue that resonates deeply among Democrats in the state.

“As long as I have a breath in me, I’m going to see to it that things change,” Biden told the crowd. “Too many people are needlessly dying … and it doesn’t have anything to do with the second amendment.”

Recent polling suggests Biden could be set for a strong showing, after the former Delaware senator clinched a major endorsement from the influential congressman Jim Clyburn earlier in the week. The former vice-president was also endorsed by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 running mate, the Virginia senator Tim Kaine, another major nod from an influential name in a pivotal Super Tuesday state.

There are 54 delegates in play in South Carolina, with only 101 so far allotted after the first three primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

Polls in South Carolina opened at 7am ET on Saturday and will close at 7pm.

Biden and Sanders have occupied the top two slots in most polls but the billionaire Tom Steyer has made an impact by focusing his efforts on the state. At his campaign office in Columbia on Saturday, supporters chanted “Steyered up, ready to go” as the candidate arrived.

“Let’s run right through the god damn tape,” he told them.

Sanders leads the pack with 45 delegates. He is followed by the former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg on 26 while Biden has 15. The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren holds eight with the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar on seven.

South Carolina also serves as a launchpad for the vital Super Tuesday elections in just three days’ time, when 16 states and territories will vote and more than 1,300 delegates, around a third of the total in the entire election, will be up for grabs.

For any candidate to win a simple majority they require 1,991 pledged delegates before the Democratic convention in Wisconsin in July. If there is no outright majority then so-called super delegates, unpledged senior party members, could decide who secures the nomination.

Super Tuesday also marks the first time the former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg will appear on the ballot, after two disastrous debate performances this month. The billionaire has invested $500m of his own fortune in advertising but has begun to slip in the polls.

Sanders was not scheduled to be in South Carolina for Saturday’s results, electing to campaign in Virginia and North Carolina ahead of a gruelling schedule over the next few days. Recent polls have placed him at a relatively distant second in South Carolina but with convincing leads in a number of major Super Tuesday states.

The Vermont senator spent Friday at events throughout South Carolina, appearing with the rapper Killer Mike, a staunch supporter since 2016. At a campaign breakfast in the rural town of St George, Sanders gave pointed remarks criticising Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

“Worry about the coronavirus rather than disrupting the Democratic primary right here in South Carolina,” Sanders said.

On Friday evening, Trump held a rally in North Charleston, drawing thousands of supporters, many of whom camping out overnight to secure a spot.

Trump did not disappoint them, labeling Democratic attacks on his handling of the coronavirus crisis a “new hoax” and saying: “Whether it’s the virus that we’re talking about, or the many other public health threats, the Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and wellbeing of all Americans.”

On Saturday morning, at polling station opposite the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston, 57-year-old Robin Jones told the Guardian she had cast her ballot for Biden.

Clyburn’s endorsement had her tipped to Biden’s side as she had wavered between the former vice-president and Warren.

“No matter what people say, his experience speaks,” she said, as bells from the church, the site of a 2015 racist mass shooting that killed nine black parishioners, rang out.

“My thought process is my thought process is my thought process, but frankly I’ll go with anyone that can beat Trump,” the state education worker said.

2020-02-29 12:13:00Z
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS91cy1uZXdzLzIwMjAvZmViLzI5L3NvdXRoLWNhcm9saW5hLXByaW1hcnktdm90ZXJzLWpvZS1iaWRlbi1iZXJuaWUtc2FuZGVyc9IBZmh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS91cy1uZXdzLzIwMjAvZmViLzI5L3NvdXRoLWNhcm9saW5hLXByaW1hcnktdm90ZXJzLWpvZS1iaWRlbi1iZXJuaWUtc2FuZGVycw?oc=5