Biden WINS South Carolina primary after seeing off Dem. challengers Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson

President Joe Biden easily won the South Carolina primary on Saturday after insisting that Palmetto State Democrats be allowed to vote first.

Early returns showed Biden with an edge over challengers, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help guru Marianne Williamson.

Four years ago, Biden’s victory in South Carolina completely reshaped the Democratic primaries.

Saturday’s result came with little fanfare, with the president not even in the state but instead participating in a fundraising event on the West Coast.

After his victory was confirmed, Biden said: “As I said four years ago, this campaign is for everyone who has been beaten down, counted out and left behind. That is still the case today.

“With more than 14 million new jobs and a record 24 straight months – two years – of an unemployment rate below 4%, including a record low unemployment rate for Black Americans, we are leaving no one behind.

“In 2020, it was South Carolina voters who proved the experts wrong, revitalized our campaign and put us on a path to winning the presidency.

“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 a loser again.”

The president then attacked Trump as a threat to democracy, almost certainly pitting the two men against each other in the November election.

Supporters of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hold up signs of support during Saturday’s First in the Nation Dinner at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia

President Joe Biden’s Democratic challenger, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, also attended the dinner in Columbia last Saturday, warning the crowd that he believed Biden could not defeat former President Donald Trump in a rematch of the 2024 general election.

Biden made a trip to South Carolina the weekend before, in an effort to shore up his support among Black voters, who propelled his 2020 victory in the state after receiving strong support from South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn – the highest-ranking black congressman at the time.

“You are the reason I am president,” Biden told attendees at the state party’s fundraising dinner last Saturday. “You are the reason Kamala Harris is a historic vice president. And you are the reason Donald Trump is a defeated former president.”

“You are the reason Donald Trump is a loser,” the president said. “And you’re the reason we’re going to win and beat him again.”

Biden’s 55-year-old challenger Phillips was also present.

“The numbers don’t mean things look good,” the Minnesota congressman warned the crowd, with some attendees holding Biden-Harris signs and talking about his speech, according to the Associated Press report. “My invitation to President Biden is to pass the torch.”

Another next-generation Democrat, 49-year-old Andrew Yang, attended the event alongside Phillips, whom he endorsed last month.

Phillips announced at the New Hampshire primary that he planned to stay in the race after launching his quixotic presidential bid in October.

Andrew Yang also appeared at the state Democratic Party event in Columbia last weekend. Yang, 49, ran for president in 2020 and supported Phillips’ challenge to Biden, fearing the 81-year-old president is too old and will lose to 77-year-old Trump

President Joe Biden (left) stands next to South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn (right), formerly the most powerful Black member of Congress, during a Sunday lunch in West Columbia last weekend. Clyburn’s 2020 endorsement helped Biden turn around his White House campaign

President Joe Biden (right) poses for a selfie during his trip to South Carolina last weekend. He supported a plan to let Palmetto State Democrats vote first, though New Hampshire Republicans scuppered that plan.

Marianne Williamson is photographed campaigning in Keene, New Hampshire, ahead of last month’s Granite State primary. She received just 4 percent of the vote and has focused on winning votes in Nevada since finishing a distant third

The final polls before the contest showed he was expected to get about 7 percent of the vote in the Granite State, but instead he got almost 20 percent.

“I’m telling you, if we can go from 7 percent to 21 percent in nine hours, imagine what we can do in this country?” he told a crowd of about 100 people.

However, Biden was not on the ballot in New Hampshire because of a Democratic National Committee plan he endorsed to reshuffle the party’s primaries.

South Carolina would go first, the Iowa caucuses would be killed — after an embarrassing reporting error in 2020 that led to no results for hours.

New Hampshire and Nevada would come in second and hold games on the same day.

New Hampshire’s Republican leadership refused to give up the state’s first-in-the-nation primary status — since it’s also state law — and that’s why Biden ultimately wasn’t on the ballot, giving Phillips and Williamson the chance to potentially embarrass the sitting president.

Biden allies in the state organized a write-in campaign to ensure that didn’t happen, with the president winning 63.9 percent of the vote in New Hampshire.

Williamson, who also ran against Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary, won just 4 percent of the vote in New Hampshire despite announcing her 2024 bid in March.

She has continued to campaign, but has spent her time in Nevada, where a Democratic primary will be held on Tuesday.

South Carolina Republicans will vote later this month, on February 24.