U.S. President Joe Biden reacts as he attends the opening of the Biden presidential campaign office in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, on February 3, 2024.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
President Joe Biden won a landslide victory in the Democratic primary in South Carolina on Saturday, where voters sent a clear message that they are ready for Biden to focus on the November election.
As of noon ET on Sunday, Biden had won 96.2% of the votes cast, with 97% of the total votes counted.
The other two Democrats on the ballot, House Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and self-help author and 2020 Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson, each won about 2% of the vote.
The victory gives Biden’s re-election campaign new momentum and offers a compelling refutation of the narrative that Democratic voters are ambivalent – or worse – about their party’s standard-bearer.
“In 2020, it was South Carolina voters who proved the experts wrong, breathed new life into our campaign and put us on the path to winning the presidency,” Biden said in a statement after Saturday’s results.
“Now, in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again, and I have no doubt that you have put us on the path to winning the presidency again — and making Donald Trump the loser again.”
Biden will be allocated all 55 of the state’s Democratic delegates, NBC News understands. Neither Williamson nor Phillips have exceeded the 15 percent threshold for delegate allocation.
Biden’s overwhelming victory left no doubt about who Democratic voters want to be in November.
But that came amid reports of lower-than-expected turnout, perhaps a sign that Democrats’ enthusiasm for Biden has waned.
In 2020, about 16% of the state’s 3.3 million registered voters cast ballots in the Democratic primary. On Saturday, that number dropped to about 4% of voters.
In particular, polls have shown Biden’s support lagging among Black voters, a core bloc of the Democratic Party that was key to his victory in 2020.
Black voters make up the majority of South Carolina’s Democratic electorate, so his victory there Saturday could help address some of those concerns.
Biden’s campaign was also under pressure to show momentum, a real challenge this year since the official Democratic primary season got off to a late start.
In Iowa, the Democratic Party decided not to cast ballots at its caucuses, denying Biden a chance to win there.
In New Hampshire, Biden’s name was not on the official ballot, but he won the contest as a write-in candidate with 64% of the vote.
Republicans will vote in their party primary on February 24, where former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will try to pull off an upset in her home state against former President Donald Trump.
The GOP primary is expected to draw much higher turnout and attention than Saturday’s vote.
In contrast to the Republican fight, the Democratic primaries have so far been distinguished by their civility.
“Congratulations, Mr. President, on a good old-fashioned hoot,” Phillips wrote on X.
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2024-02-04 06:07:55
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