©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the South Carolina First in the Nation Dinner at the State Fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S., January 27, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/ Photo files
By Trevor Hunnicutt, Jarrett Renshaw and Liliana Salgado
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday won South Carolina’s Democratic primary – the first officially sanctioned race of the party’s nominating season – with early results showing him dominating two other candidates, according to Edison Research projections.
Although Biden, 81, faced little opposition, the vote was closely watched amid concerns about his popularity, especially among black voters.
Edison Research made the forecast just after the polls closed on Saturday.
With more than 50% of the votes counted, the Biden campaign said, “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.
“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 statement said. countryside.
Shortly before the polls closed in South Carolina, Biden arrived in Los Angeles, where he was expected to meet with black artists.
Four years ago, it was the vote of black South Carolinians in the state’s primary that helped spark his campaign and ultimately propelled him to the White House.
Biden, an unpopular incumbent who faces little competition for his party’s nomination in state primaries leading up to the Nov. 5 U.S. election, appeared on track for a landslide victory in South Carolina.
In addition to election fears that South Carolina’s majority-black electorate might lack energy this time, there were also questions about its age and worries about high consumer prices and security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Democratic officials interviewed by Reuters expected between 100,000 and 200,000 total votes in the primary, after a county-by-county tour of the southern state aimed at exciting voters and multiple events featuring Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.