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Clinton Wins South Carolina Primary to Set Up Super Tuesday
Hillary Clinton won the South Carolina presidential primary, where she was seeking a decisive margin of victory that would solidify her path to the Democratic nomination heading into Tuesday’s nominating contests in 11 states, the biggest prize of the 2016 campaign.
Clinton defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who conceded just minutes after the polls closed at 7 p.m. local time. “This campaign is just beginning,” he said in a statement. “Now it’s on to Super Tuesday.”
The former secretary of state campaigned hard in the Palmetto State before Saturday’s primary despite leading by 20 percentage points or more in polls, seeking a convincing win before Super Tuesday to cement her position as the inevitable nominee. Sanders had hoped to limit the margin of Clinton’s victory, even as he spent much of the week campaigning in other states.
After Sanders essentially tied Clinton in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 and defeated her by more than 22 percentage points a week later in New Hampshire, Clinton won the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 20 in the first test in a state with a large minority population. She replicated that performance in South Carolina, the first nominating contest in the South.
Black Voters
Preliminary exit polls showed that 61 percent of Democrats voting on Saturday were black, possibly on pace to break the state record of 55 percent in 2008, ABC News reported on its website. She was getting eight out of 10 of their votes, according to the exit polls. Black voters are also a significant part of the electorate in Georgia, Alabama and other Southern states voting on Tuesday.
Sanders tried to energize voters, especially young people, with his message about income inequality. He also increased his criticism of Clinton’s record, including her support of the 1996 welfare-reform bill that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed into law.
Clinton relied on her longstanding ties to the black community, lingering goodwill from the economic advances during her husband’s presidency, and a strong pitch that she would carry on the initiatives of President Barack Obama, the first black chief executive.
Obama’s Record
“What I want to do is build on the progress we’ve made under President Obama and go further,’’ Clinton said during a rally on Wednesday at Morris College, a historically black college in Sumter.
Kelvin Mathews, 25, a dock worker from North Charleston, said he likes Sanders but thinks Clinton can win and get results.
“She’s going to continue things Barack Obama put in place,” Mathews said during Clinton’s visit on Wednesday to the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422 hall in Charleston.
Clinton also emphasized her ability to get results with achievable proposals, continuing her efforts to paint Sanders, a self-described socialist, as a “one-issue’’ candidate.
Clinton’s team was confident that she would win South Carolina and spent the week trying to run up the vote margin, with Bill Clinton traversing the western part of the state ahead of primary day and their daughter, Chelsea, visiting colleges.
Super Tuesday States
The former secretary of state campaigned in Alabama on Saturday before returning to spend primary night at a party on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Sanders spent the day in Texas and he flew to Minnesota just before the South Carolina polls closed.
Sanders seemingly had already moved beyond South Carolina by Saturday, telling a crowd of about 10,000 people in Austin about the campaign’s competitive showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
“On Super Tuesday the state that is going to be voting for the most delegates is the great state of Texas,” he said, skipping over Saturday’s primary. “And if all of you come out to vote, and you bring your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers, we are gonna win here in Texas.’’
Sanders perhaps could have performed better in South Carolina by devoting more time and resources, said Robert Oldendick, a professor of political science at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
But he needed to concentrate on the first voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire to build momentum, and he started in South Carolina limited by low name recognition and Clinton’s institutional advantages, including the backing of U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn, the state’s highest-ranking black Democrat, Oldendick said.
“It was such a steep hill to climb,’’ he said. “I’m not sure he could have done much better.’’
South Carolina has 59 delegates to the national convention, according to the state Democratic Party. Thirty-five are awarded proportionally based on the results in each of the state’s seven congressional districts, and 18 others are decided proportionally by the statewide outcome. There also are six superdelegates, four of whom have endorsed Clinton, according to the Associated Press. Party Chairman Jaime Harrison will go with the primary winner, the party said.
Of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination, Clinton had just over 500 before Saturday’s primary, including more than 450 superdelegates. Sanders had 71 delegates, including 20 superdelegates, according to a tally compiled by the Associated Press.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...outh-carolina-primary-to-set-up-super-tuesday
Hillary Clinton won the South Carolina presidential primary, where she was seeking a decisive margin of victory that would solidify her path to the Democratic nomination heading into Tuesday’s nominating contests in 11 states, the biggest prize of the 2016 campaign.
Clinton defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who conceded just minutes after the polls closed at 7 p.m. local time. “This campaign is just beginning,” he said in a statement. “Now it’s on to Super Tuesday.”
The former secretary of state campaigned hard in the Palmetto State before Saturday’s primary despite leading by 20 percentage points or more in polls, seeking a convincing win before Super Tuesday to cement her position as the inevitable nominee. Sanders had hoped to limit the margin of Clinton’s victory, even as he spent much of the week campaigning in other states.
After Sanders essentially tied Clinton in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 and defeated her by more than 22 percentage points a week later in New Hampshire, Clinton won the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 20 in the first test in a state with a large minority population. She replicated that performance in South Carolina, the first nominating contest in the South.
Black Voters
Preliminary exit polls showed that 61 percent of Democrats voting on Saturday were black, possibly on pace to break the state record of 55 percent in 2008, ABC News reported on its website. She was getting eight out of 10 of their votes, according to the exit polls. Black voters are also a significant part of the electorate in Georgia, Alabama and other Southern states voting on Tuesday.
Sanders tried to energize voters, especially young people, with his message about income inequality. He also increased his criticism of Clinton’s record, including her support of the 1996 welfare-reform bill that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed into law.
Clinton relied on her longstanding ties to the black community, lingering goodwill from the economic advances during her husband’s presidency, and a strong pitch that she would carry on the initiatives of President Barack Obama, the first black chief executive.
Obama’s Record
“What I want to do is build on the progress we’ve made under President Obama and go further,’’ Clinton said during a rally on Wednesday at Morris College, a historically black college in Sumter.
Kelvin Mathews, 25, a dock worker from North Charleston, said he likes Sanders but thinks Clinton can win and get results.
“She’s going to continue things Barack Obama put in place,” Mathews said during Clinton’s visit on Wednesday to the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422 hall in Charleston.
Clinton also emphasized her ability to get results with achievable proposals, continuing her efforts to paint Sanders, a self-described socialist, as a “one-issue’’ candidate.
Clinton’s team was confident that she would win South Carolina and spent the week trying to run up the vote margin, with Bill Clinton traversing the western part of the state ahead of primary day and their daughter, Chelsea, visiting colleges.
Super Tuesday States
The former secretary of state campaigned in Alabama on Saturday before returning to spend primary night at a party on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Sanders spent the day in Texas and he flew to Minnesota just before the South Carolina polls closed.
Sanders seemingly had already moved beyond South Carolina by Saturday, telling a crowd of about 10,000 people in Austin about the campaign’s competitive showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
“On Super Tuesday the state that is going to be voting for the most delegates is the great state of Texas,” he said, skipping over Saturday’s primary. “And if all of you come out to vote, and you bring your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers, we are gonna win here in Texas.’’
Sanders perhaps could have performed better in South Carolina by devoting more time and resources, said Robert Oldendick, a professor of political science at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
But he needed to concentrate on the first voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire to build momentum, and he started in South Carolina limited by low name recognition and Clinton’s institutional advantages, including the backing of U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn, the state’s highest-ranking black Democrat, Oldendick said.
“It was such a steep hill to climb,’’ he said. “I’m not sure he could have done much better.’’
South Carolina has 59 delegates to the national convention, according to the state Democratic Party. Thirty-five are awarded proportionally based on the results in each of the state’s seven congressional districts, and 18 others are decided proportionally by the statewide outcome. There also are six superdelegates, four of whom have endorsed Clinton, according to the Associated Press. Party Chairman Jaime Harrison will go with the primary winner, the party said.
Of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination, Clinton had just over 500 before Saturday’s primary, including more than 450 superdelegates. Sanders had 71 delegates, including 20 superdelegates, according to a tally compiled by the Associated Press.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...outh-carolina-primary-to-set-up-super-tuesday
