Joe Biden Reenergized after a dominant win in South Carolina
Joe Biden at the University of South Carolina. SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES
Former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to win the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, grasping his first win of the 2020 race and the first of his 50-year career in politics.
The much-needed win serves as a change of narrative, as Biden suffered woeful performances in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, making South Carolina the lifeline for his campaign’s presidential hopes.
“You brought me back,” Biden said to his South Carolina supporters, conveying how important the win was for his momentum going into Super Tuesday.
With the win, Biden will likely usurp Mayor Pete Buttigieg for second place in total delegates, as South Carolina accounts for 54 pledged delegates, more than half of the previous 3 states combined.
In South Carolina, the black vote accounts for about 60% of the Democratic electorate, and early exit polls indicate that Biden’s “firewall” of black voters held as he received the support of 3 of 5 black voters.
The biggest losers in South Carolina maybe Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg who spent half a billion dollars thus far on his self-funded campaign. Bloomberg, who entered the presidential race, feeling the Democratic field too weak to defeat Trump, hoped that he would fulfill the role of the moderate in contrast to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Sanders is projected to come in second place in the South Carolina primary, but the number of pledged delegates he will receive is undetermined.
The question going forward is whether this win will serve as a surge for the Biden campaign to take the lead from frontrunner Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday, or is the victory simply a spark in the political wind. Tonight, the Sanders campaign hopes it is the latter.
