Longtime South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn endorsed Biden in 2020, signaling to Black voters that he would represent their concerns. As a longtime Biden friend, Clyburn stated Saturday night that New Hampshire's delegates should be seated at the party's convention this summer and that Democrats should avoid infighting.
Biden and Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American vice president, have praised South Carolina Democrats for their support. Biden called into several Black radio stations in South Carolina this weekend while traveling in California and Nevada, telling WWDM in Sumter, “The only reason I’m talking to you today as president of the United States of America is because of South Carolina. Not exaggeration.
Last week, the president campaigned in South Carolina, calling it "the reason Donald Trump is a loser." You're the reason we'll win and beat him again," previewing the GOP frontrunner's anticipated general election clash.
In the morning, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison remarked, “We all know that we, because of the color of this, we, our great grandparents, our grandparents, could not always vote here.” Black South Carolina native Harrison.
This president said, ‘Jaime, throughout the duration of your life, we have begun this process in Iowa and New Hampshire, and now, we’re going to start it in South Carolina’—no other president has touched that problem, he continued. But Joe Biden did, and I will always be thankful to the president for recognizing us and knowing how much we matter.”
Black voters contacted during the early voting period cited Biden's advocacy of abortion rights and appointment of Black jurists and other minorities to federal courts as reasons for supporting him. As Trump claims the 2020 vote was stolen, several repeated Biden's worries that he would undermine democracy.
A dictatorship-making leader can't be tolerated. We can't live under a dictatorship. That will hurt America, said 42-year-old Columbia small business owner LaJoia Broughton. So I vote for Biden. It is with Biden and will remain so.” Like many Americans in public polls, some voters worried about 81-year-old Biden's age. Trump is 77. Both men have made public mistakes that cast doubt on their readiness.
“They’re as old as I am and to have these two guys be the only choices, that’s kind of difficult,” said 77-year-old Blythewood, South Carolina resident Charles Trower. I prefer President Biden to the other man.
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