President Joe Biden and Congressman Jim Clyburn sit together at the South Carolina Democratic Party’s fundraising dinner Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, at the State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C. (Mary Ann Chastain/ Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — President Joe Biden cruised to an expected victory Saturday in Democrats’ first recognized contest of 2024, following a month-long push by the president and his proxies to drive up turnout after the party put South Carolina first on the official voting calendar.
With two-thirds of the votes in, Biden was winning with 97% of them.
“I want to let you guys know, South Carolina, tonight is our night,” state Democratic Party Chairwoman Christale Spain told the crowd. “For the first time, Southern voters, Black voters and rural voters have had the chance to have their voices heard first.”
Biden called in to his victory party from Los Angeles.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, whose 2020 endorsement catapulted Biden to the White House, held his cellphone up to a microphone, but reporters stationed in the back couldn’t hear what the president said.
“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 result of Democrats’ “first-in-the-nation” presidential primary was never in doubt, with Biden running against two extreme-long-shot candidates: U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson. Even when Phillips spoke to South Carolina Democrats, he said he fully expected 95% of the vote would go to Biden.
Still, Democratic officials and the Biden campaign went all out with get-out-the-vote efforts that focused on energizing Black voters, who make up a large part of South Carolina’s Democratic base. The party touted that a “six-figure” investment in radio, digital and outdoor advertising in South Carolina represented its earliest ever spending during a presidential contest on outreach to young, rural and Black voters.
Biden is scheduled to hold a campaign event in Las Vegas Sunday in advance of the state’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday.
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