Former US vice president Joe Biden on Saturday notched up a resounding victory in the South Carolina primary, reviving his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and positioning him as the leading rival to frontrunner US Senator Bernie Sanders.
The victory, powered by support from African-American voters, was the 77-year-old Biden’s first in the race and might give him momentum going into “Super Tuesday” tomorrow, when 14 states go to the polls.
“Just days ago the press and the pundits had declared this candidacy dead,” Biden told hundreds of supporters at a victory rally in the South Carolina capital, Columbia.
Photo: AFP
“You’ve launched our campaign on the path to defeating [US President] Donald Trump,” he said.
“We have the option of winning big or losing big,” Biden added in a dig at Sanders’ prospects against Trump in November’s election.
With 99 percent of the ballots counted, Biden had 48.4 percent to 20 percent for the 78-year-old Sanders.
Billionaire activist Tom Steyer, who spent US$23 million on advertising in South Carolina, was next with 11.4 percent, but announced he was quitting the race even before the final results were published.
Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has been challenging Biden for the centrist vote, had 8 percent, while US Senator Elizabeth Warren had 7 percent.
A victory in South Carolina, where African-Americans make up about 60 percent of the Democratic primary electorate, was seen as crucial to Biden’s hopes of reviving his flagging campaign.
Sanders has been the clear leader in the overall race, winning two of the first three contests and finishing in a virtual tie in Iowa with the 38-year-old Buttigieg.
South Carolina was seen as a key test of Sanders’ support among African-Americans — crucial to a Democratic victory in November — but he only received the backing of about 15 percent of black voters, while Biden received 60 percent, according to exit polls.
Biden finished fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire and second in Nevada, and desperately needed a win in South Carolina ahead of Super Tuesday, which decides one-third of the delegates who formally choose the Democratic nominee at the July party convention.
“The biggest question is whether this will slingshot Joe Biden into victory in some Super Tuesday states,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Sabato said Biden’s primary win — his first in three attempts at securing the Democratic presidential nomination — also increases the pressure on the other centrist candidates to leave the race.
Buttigieg, Warren, US Senator Amy Klobuchar and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg have all made it clear that they would stick around at least through Super Tuesday.
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