Why AP called South Carolina for Biden: Race call explained
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary on Saturday, the contest that revitalized his 2020 campaign and now gave him his first official victory in his bid for a second term.
The Associated Press declared Biden the winner at 7:23 p.m. based on an analysis of early voting results, which showed him with a decisive lead in key locations in the state. At the time the race was called, Biden was leading statewide with about 97% of the vote, nearly double the 49% he received in the 2020 primaries. Nearly an hour after the race was called, it remained Biden’s voting percentage largely unchanged at about 97%.
His only challengers in this year’s vote, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and self-help author Marianne Williamson, had both failed to reach the 2% mark by the time Biden was declared the winner.
The president won all 46 counties in the primaries four years ago, a feat he is on track to repeat in Saturday’s contest, according to early results so far. Biden also won all 55 delegates up for grabs in the primaries.
Four years ago, Biden prevailed in South Carolina against a highly competitive field that included U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg of Indiana and billionaire Tom Steyer, who poured millions of dollars into the state and followed his performance was cancelled. finish third. South Carolina was Biden’s first victory that year, following a fourth-place finish in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire and a distant second-place finish in Nevada.
Last month, Biden won the New Hampshire primary as a write-in candidate with a 44-point lead over Phillips, his closest competitor. Iowa and New Hampshire have traditionally kicked off the presidential primaries, as they did for Republicans this year, but the Democratic National Committee changed the schedule and moved South Carolina to the coveted top spot in the nation at Biden’s urging.
Black voters are playing a key role in the state’s Democratic primaries. U.S. Census figures show that more than a quarter of South Carolina’s population is Black, while Black voters made up half of the Democratic electorate in the 2020 primaries, according to AP’s VoteCast survey of voters that year.
Biden’s strongest performances in the 2020 contest were in counties with a majority or near majority Black population. Early results Saturday showed this pattern continuing, with the president receiving at least 97% in counties including Dillon, Marion, Sumter and Williamsburg.