After Donald Trump edged closer to winning the Republican presidential nomination last month,Biden is a step closer to locking in his candidacy with 95 per cent of the vote in South Carolina on Sunday (AEDT).
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Rock Hill,South Carolina.Bloomberg
The president was always expected to dominate the race against his two long-shot challengers:self-help author Marianne Williamson and Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips.
But South Carolina was also an early test of his support among black voters who helped propel him to victory in 2020,and of how challenging it would be to win another term in November.
In a statement released after his victory,the president said:“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.”
There were,however,warning signs for Democrats,such as pervasive lack of enthusiasm over the primary contest. Many polling centres reported very low turnout rates and voters expressed disillusion at the prospect of a Trump-Biden rematch.
One voting centre at the Charleston Library only had about 10 voters within the first three hours of polls opening at 7am (US Eastern Time),the local clerk told this masthead. Another large centre in Columbia,the state capital,reported seeing 75 people by midday,and another in Charleston’s popular French Quarter district had only seen about 50 voters by 3pm.
President Joe Biden speaks at a church in Charleston,South Carolina last month.AP
Some residents,such as Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison,were sent to different polling locations due to last-minute changes by county election officials – a move that Harrison characterised as voter disenfranchisement.
The apparent lack of enthusiasm came despite pleas by the president and other senior Democrats to show up in force today,after the party made South Carolina the first state in the nation to hold a Democratic presidential primary this year.
Ron Horne voting in the Democratic primaries in South Carolina.Farrah Tomazin
“President Biden and I are counting on you,” Vice President Kamala Harris told the crowd during a “get out the vote” rally at South Carolina State University on Friday (Saturday AEDT).
Retired teacher Ron Horne heeded the call and voted for Biden because he viewed the president as “an honourable man”. But he also raised concerns about what might happen if the president,who is now 81,suddenly had to withdraw from the race.
“Unfortunately,the vice president isn’t very popular,so you’d think they would have an alternative candidate in mind just in case,but it doesn’t seem to be that way,” Horne told this masthead.
“I also worry about what might happen if Trump gets in again. This country has never been more divided.”
Former party official Chris Salley,however,decided not to vote in the primary contest all,and is likely to use his vote in November to pick a longshot third-party candidate over Trump or Biden:theologian and progressive activist Cornel West.
Salley used to be the chair of the Anderson County Democratic Party in South Carolina,but quit his post in October due to concerns about Biden’s response to the war in Gaza,the president’s age,and what he sees as undemocratic processes in the primary race.
“It’s the election nobody wanted,but everybody’s getting,” says former Democrat Chris Salley.Supplied
“Instead of South Carolina being first in a competitive primary,we ended up being first in a coronation,” he told this masthead,citing the lack of debates or town hall events giving young and black voters a chance to have their say.
“We weren’t elevated to first-in-the-nation to actually be heard,” the 31-year-old said. “We were here to protect the president.”
Biden’s victory puts him one step closer to being announced as the presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August.
However,South Carolina is a Republican-leaning state and unlikely to be a major battleground in the general election later this year.
Nonetheless,Democrats who gathered at a watch party in North Charleston as the votes came in were thrilled by the president’s emphatic win,and were optimistic about his chances against Trump.
“Experience is what you get with age,” said scientist Donald Barry,in reference to concerns Biden is too old for another term in office.
“But what you don’t get with age is stupidity – unless you’re his opponent. Most of us know Donald Trump for what he is:he’s a charlatan and a liar.”
All eyes are now on South Carolina’s Republican primary on February 24,when the state’s former governor Nikki Haley is once again taking on Trump for a shot at the presidential nomination.
The former UN ambassador faces an uphill battle after coming third in the Iowa caucuses and then trailing Trump by 11 points in the New Hampshire primaries.
She has stepped up her attacks in recent days,highlighting everything from Trump’s age and verbal gaffes,to his legal woes and “temper tantrums”.
“I am not going anywhere,” she said on Thursday. “We have a country to save. And I am determined to keep on going the entire way. As long as we can keep closing that gap,I’m gonna keep staying in.”
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