Clinton trounces Sanders in South Carolina before ‘Super Tuesday’

She won 87% of the black vote – a higher percentage than what President Barack Obama won in SC in 2008. “Our grass roots political revolution is growing state by state, and we won’t stop”. Donald Trump, working to build an insurmountable lead, was campaigning in Arkansas with former rival Chris Christie and calling Marco Rubio a “light little nothing;” Ted Cruz was asking parents in Atlanta if they would be pleased if their children spouted profanities like the brash billionaire, and Rubio was mocking Trump as a “con artist” with “the worst spray tan in America”. With 99% of South Carolina Democratic precincts reporting, Clinton has secured 73.5% of the votes, while Bernie Sanders nabbed 26%.

But perception isn’t quite reality: Sanders’ investment in SC reveals a campaign that was hopeful his message of tackling economic inequality and reforming the criminal justice system would both make the state competitive and show he could win minority voters in other Democratic primaries.

While Sanders spent the end of the week outside of SC, his campaign did invest heavily in the state. She won whites overall, 54% to 46% – a much smaller margin than her overall victory, but still significant, since Sanders typically outperforms Clinton with white voters. And the vast majority of those voters – 84% – backed Clinton, according to exit polls.

He practically conceded the state on the eve of the Nevada contest by declaring it was “on to Super Tuesday”.

Voters set a record in 2008 when 23.7 percent of the electorate voted in the South Carolina Democratic primary. Besides his home state, Sanders’ best chance lies in MA, where the candidates were within less than a point.

“Tomorrow, this campaign goes national”, Clinton declared at her victory rally in Columbia, S.C. With 53 delegates at stake, Clinton will receive at least 37, Sanders at least 12.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state’s top Democrat whose late endorsement for Clinton gave her an extra boost, said his state’s voters had months to compare and contrast the candidates.

The result was Clinton’s third victory in the first four Democratic contests, and raised more questions about whether Sanders, the democratic socialist US senator from Vermont, will be able to expand his support beyond his base of predominantly white liberals.

Clinton got about 74 percent of Saturday’s vote with Vermont Sen.

Gloria Major, a grandmother and campaign volunteer who supported Clinton in 2008, was among the ecstatic crowd listening to her victory speech in SC. “But we do need to make America whole again”.

Instead of speaking in South Carolina, Sanders was en route to Rochester, Minnesota for a campaign rally.

Sanders made a real effort to compete here, hiring more than 200 paid canvassers and visiting the state on numerous occasions.

If the results in SC extrapolate to other states in the South on Super Tuesday, Clinton can expect to run the tables in the “SEC primary”.

At one point in her victory speech Saturday, Clinton seemed to be trying to look past Sanders, rhetorically taking on Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Roughly a dozen states hold contests on Tuesday, with delegates on the line in 11 of them. Sanders also won the support of white men, but they only made up 14 percent of the electorate. At that point, it will be pretty hard for him to justify staying in the race.