Columbia, SC — On Saturday, President Joe Biden handily won South Carolina's Democratic primary, a state he urged to lead his party's nomination process after it resurrected his then-struggling White House candidacy four years ago.
Biden defeated Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson, other long-shot Democrats in South Carolina. His reelection campaign actively promoted Black voter participation as a test of its attempts to energize the Democratic group crucial to Biden's hopes in a possible November rematch with former President Donald Trump.
“In 2020, South Carolina voters proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency,” Biden added. “In 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again, and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again and making Donald Trump a loser.
proclaimed Biden the winner at 7:23 p.m. after analyzing initial vote returns showing him with a substantial advantage in key state locations. He earned all 55 Democratic state delegates.
The president led a Democratic National Committee effort to have South Carolina go first in the party's primary, citing the state's more racially diverse population than Iowa and New Hampshire, which are mostly white.
Republicans rule South Carolina, although 26% of its inhabitants are Black. AP VoteCast, a large 2020 general election survey, found that 9 in 10 Black voters favored Biden.
Biden campaigned for a new primary timetable that puts Nevada second on Tuesday. The revised arrangement also puts Michigan's Democratic primary, a huge and diverse swing state, to Feb. 27 before Super Tuesday on March 5.
New Hampshire had a leadoff primary last month despite the DNC's intentions. Biden didn't campaign and wasn't on the ballot, but fans ran a write-in campaign for him and he won big. South Carolina, where Biden has long had close ties to fans and funders, was crucial to his 2020 campaign, sparking a revival in other early-voting states and propelling him to the nomination.
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