南卡罗来纳州哥伦比亚总统乔·拜登周六，他轻松赢得了南卡罗来纳州的民主党初选，巩固了该州的地位。四年前，他曾推动该州领导民主党的提名程序，该州恢复了他当时苦苦挣扎的白宫竞选。
拜登在南卡罗来纳州的投票中击败了其他遥遥领先的民主党人，包括明尼苏达州众议员迪恩·菲利普斯和作家玛丽安娜·威廉森。他的连任竞选活动投入巨资提高投票率，将其视为动员黑人选民的努力的一次测试。黑人选民是民主党的一个关键集团，对拜登在11月可能与前总统的竞选中获胜至关重要唐纳德·特朗普.
拜登在一份声明中说:“2020年，是南卡罗来纳州的选民证明了权威人士的错误，为我们的竞选注入了新的活力，并使我们走上了赢得总统职位的道路。”“现在到了2024年，南卡罗来纳州人民再次发声，我毫不怀疑，你们让我们再次赢得总统宝座——并让唐纳德·特朗普再次成为失败者。”
美联社在晚上7点23分宣布拜登获胜，根据对初步投票结果的分析，拜登在全州关键地点取得了决定性领先。他赢得了该州全部55名民主党代表。
这一胜利是在总统领导民主党全国委员会努力使南卡罗来纳州在党内初选中领先之后取得的，理由是该州的种族多样性高于传统的爱荷华州和新罕布什尔州，这两个州的白人占绝大多数。
南卡罗来纳州确实是共和党的天下，但该州26%的居民是黑人。在2020年的换届中选举据美联社VoteCast对选举选民的广泛调查显示，美国黑人选民占全国选民的11%，其中90%支持拜登。
拜登推动修改初选日历，将内华达州排在第二位，于周二举行初选。这项新命令还将密歇根州的民主党初选提前到2月27日，然后在3月5日的超级星期二举行广泛的州投票。
新罕布什尔州拒绝了民主党全国委员会的计划，并于上月举行了初选。拜登没有参加竞选，他的名字也没有出现在选票上，但在支持者为他发起一场书面竞选后，他仍以相当大的优势获胜。
拜登长期以来与支持者和捐助者保持着深厚关系的南卡罗来纳州也在他2020年的竞选中发挥了关键作用，该州的一场大胜重振了其他提前投票州的低迷努力，并推动他获得提名。
拜登得到了南卡罗来纳州资深众议员吉姆·克莱伯恩的帮助。克莱伯恩2020年的支持向该州的黑人选民发出了期待已久的信号，即拜登将是维护他们利益的合适人选。克莱伯恩仍然是拜登的亲密盟友，他周六晚上表示，他认为新罕布什尔州的代表应该在今年夏天的党内大会上就座，民主党人应该避免任何进一步的内斗。
拜登和副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯(第一位担任这一职务的黑人女性和亚裔美国人)一直感谢南卡罗莱纳州民主党人的支持。拜登本周末在加利福尼亚州和内华达州旅行，但他致电南卡罗来纳州的一系列黑人电台，并在萨姆特告诉WWDM，“我今天以美利坚合众国总统的身份与你交谈的唯一原因是因为南卡罗来纳州。这并不夸张。这是事实。”
总统上周在该州的竞选活动中表示，南卡罗来纳州是“唐纳德·特朗普失败的原因”。你是我们获胜并再次击败他的原因，”这是共和党目前领先的候选人可能参加的大选的框架。
当天早些时候，民主党全国委员会主席海梅·哈里森(Jaime Harrison)表示，“我们都知道，由于这件事的颜色，我们，我们的曾祖父母，我们的祖父母，不能总是在这里投票。”哈里森是南卡罗来纳州人，是一名黑人。
“对于这位总统来说，‘詹姆，在你的一生中，我们已经在爱荷华州和新罕布什尔州开始了这一进程，现在，我们将在南卡罗来纳州开始这一进程’——以前没有其他总统决定触及这个问题，”他补充说。“但乔·拜登做到了，我将永远感谢总统给我们一个机会，看到我们，并了解我们有多重要。”
在最近的提前投票期间接受采访的黑人选民列出了一系列支持拜登的理由，从他的政府对堕胎权利的捍卫到任命黑人法学家和其他少数族裔进入联邦法院。一些人呼应了拜登的警告，即特朗普将威胁民主，因为他继续散布2020年选票被盗的谎言。
“我们不能和一个会把这里变成独裁国家的领导人生活在一起。我们不能生活在一个不民主的地方。哥伦比亚42岁的小企业主拉乔亚·布劳顿说。“所以我投票支持拜登。它一直伴随着拜登，并将继续伴随着拜登。”
一些选民表示，他们担心81岁的拜登的年龄，因为许多美国人表示他们正在进行公共投票。特朗普今年77岁。两人都有过一系列公开失误，这让人们对他们的准备程度产生了怀疑。
“他们和我一样老了，让这两个家伙成为唯一的选择，这有点困难，”来自南卡罗来纳州布莱斯伍德的77岁的查尔斯·特罗尔说。“但我更希望拜登总统当选，而不是考虑另一个人。”
President Joe Biden wins South Carolina’s Democratic primary as he gears up for his reelection bid
COLUMBIA, S.C. --PresidentJoe Bideneasily won South Carolina’s Democratic primary on Saturday, clinching a state he pushed to lead off his party’s nominating process after it revived his then-struggling White House bid four years ago.
Biden defeated the other long-shot Democrats on South Carolina’s ballot, including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and authorMarianne Williamson. His reelection campaign invested heavily in driving up turnout in what it saw as a test drive of its efforts to mobilize Black voters, a key Democratic bloc central to Biden's chances in a likely November rematch against former PresidentDonald Trump.
“In 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency,” Biden said in a statement. “Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again — and making Donald Trump a loser — again.”
The Associated Press declared Biden the winner at 7:23 p.m. based on an analysis of initial vote results showing him with a decisive lead in key locations throughout the state. He won all 55 of the state's Democratic delegates.
The victory comes following the president leading a Democratic National Committee effort to have South Carolina go first in the party’s primary, citing the state’s more racially diverse population compared to the traditional first-in-the-nation states of Iowa and New Hampshire, which are overwhelmingly white.
South Carolina is reliably Republican, but 26% of its residents are Black. In the 2020 generalelection, Black voters made up 11% of the national electorate, and 9 in 10 of them supported Biden, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of that election’s voters.
Biden pushed for a revamped primary calendar that will see Nevada go second, holding its primary on Tuesday. The new order also moves the Democratic primary in Michigan, a large and diverse swing state, to Feb. 27, before the expansive field of states voting on March 5, known as Super Tuesday.
New Hampshire rejected the DNC’s plan and held a leadoff primary last month anyway. Biden didn’t campaign and his name wasn’t on the ballot, but still won by a sizable margin after supporters mounted a write-in campaign on his behalf.
South Carolina, where Biden has long held deep relationships with supporters and donors, also played a pivotal role in his 2020 campaign, where a big win revived a flagging effort in other early-voting states and propelled him to the nomination.
Biden was aided by longtime South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn whose 2020 endorsement served as a long-awaited signal to the state’s Black voters that Biden would be the right candidate to advocate for their interests. Clyburn remains a close Biden ally and said Saturday night that he believed New Hampshire's delegates should be seated at the party's convention this summer and that Democrats should avoid any further infighting.
Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve in the role, have consistently thanked South Carolina's Democrats for their support. Biden was traveling this weekend in California and Nevada but called into a series of Black radio stations across South Carolina and told WWDM in Sumter, “The only reason I’m talking to you today as president of the United States of America is because of South Carolina. That is not hyperbole. That’s a fact.”
Campaigning in the state last week, the president said South Carolina was “the reason Donald Trump is a loser. And you’re the reason we’re going to win and beat him again,” framing the likely general election matchup with the GOP’s current front-runner.
Earlier in the day, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said, “We all know that we, because of the color of this, we, our great grandparents, our grandparents, could not always vote here.” Harrison is a South Carolina native who is Black.
“For this president to say, ‘Jaime, for the entirety of your life, we have started this process in Iowa and New Hampshire, and now, we’re going to start it in South Carolina’ — no other president before ever decided to touch that issue,” he added. “But Joe Biden did, and I will always be grateful to the president for giving us a chance, for seeing us, and understanding how much we matter.”
Black voters interviewed during the recent early voting period listed a range of reasons for supporting Biden, from his administration’s defense of abortion rights to appointing Black jurists and other minorities to the federal courts. Some echoed Biden’s warnings that Trump would threaten democracy as he continues to push lies that the 2020 vote was stolen.
“We can’t live with a leader that will make this into a dictatorship. We can’t live in a place that is not a democracy. That will be a fall for America,” said LaJoia Broughton, a 42-year-old small business owner in Columbia. “So my vote is with Biden. It has been with Biden and will continue to be with Biden.”
Some voters said they were concerned about the 81-year-old Biden’s age, as many Americans have said they are in public polling. Trump is 77. Both men have had a series of public flubs that have fueled skepticism about their readiness.
“They’re as old as I am and to have these two guys be the only choices, that’s kind of difficult,” said Charles Trower, a 77-year-old from Blythewood, South Carolina. “But I would much rather have President Biden than even consider the other guy.”
