COLUMBIA, S.C. — It only took him 32 years, but former Vice President Joe Biden has finally won a presidential primary state.
Over his last two presidential campaigns — in 1988 and 2008 — Biden did not carry a single state. This year, he’s counting on momentum after a big win in South Carolina’s primary to ensure his first ever win is not also his last.
Shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m., the Associated Press called the race for Biden. Though his margin of victory will tell the real story of the strength of his campaign, the fact that he was ahead enough to call the race almost immediately validated his boast during the last debate that, “I will win South Carolina.”
Biden’s win also opens up questions about the campaign of his nearest competitor, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. As of 8:30 p.m., the CNN projection had Biden at 51% of the vote, and Bernie Sanders just over 17%, just over the 15% threshold to win delegates.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, who spent millions of his own funds in South Carolina, was a distant third, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar barely made a ripple.
“You cannot win them all,” Sanders told a crowd at a rally in Minnesota. ”And tonight we did not win in South Carolina. I want to congratulate Joe Biden on his victory tonight, and now we move on to Super Tuesday.”
And it means that despite a lackluster February, Biden is still in this race.
Biden’s campaign was adamant his poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire and his distant second place finish to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Nevada would be old news when he silenced critics with a major win with South Carolina’s African-American voters.
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Those voters made up more than half of the Democratic primary electorate in the Palmetto State. Interviewed at events throughout the state and at polling places on Saturday, Biden supporters said they are sticking with the experienced hand and noted his relationship with former President Barack Obama as a factor influencing their votes.
Biden had said throughout the race that no campaign can win without the support of black voters. He delivered that victory, but now he faces a big and immediate test.
Voters in 14 states will head to the polls in just three days on Super Tuesday and Biden and his team will have to work overtime to convince them that Biden should still be their No. 1 choice.
That is an already daunting task with Sanders having pulled ahead of the pack in the delegate-rich states of California and Texas. It will be even harder to do with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the ballot in the 14 Super Tuesday states for the first time and spending heavily to boost his own candidacy as the moderate alternative to Sanders.
Cover: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
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