Hillary Clinton Wins South Carolina Democratic Primary

Clinton made a stop in Alabama, a Super Tuesday state, on Saturday before returning to Columbia, South Carolina’s capital, for an evening victory party. Sanders had 71 delegates, including 20 superdelegates, according to a tally compiled by the Associated Press.

Clinton said her campaign would compete for every vote in every state without taking anything or anyone for granted. And they were more significant, as black voters made up more than 60% of the electorate.

Donald Trump was last weekend declared as the victor of the South Carolina Republican Primary, paving his way for the Republican nomination.

More than 86 percent of black women and 79 percent of black men supported her over Sanders. “Thank you very much”, he said.

Exit polls in SC showed African-American voters – who represented 61 per cent of all Democratic voters in the primary – backed Clinton by a stunning 87 per cent, against 13 percent for Sanders.

But Birgitta Johnson, an assistant professor at the University of SC, said she believes Clinton will “say anything to get votes”, while Sanders “deals with structural issues rather than talking points” on education and other issues important to her.

By comparison, Mrs Clinton’s win will inject extra energy into her campaign, which is vital going into this week when so many delegates are up for grabs. Democrats looking for a candidate who cares about people like them or one who is honest and trustworthy overwhelmingly supported Sanders in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. In South Carolina, many older voters remember Clinton as first lady of the country and still like her husband from when he served in the White House during the 1990s.

Six in 10 SC primary voters were women, and three-quarters of them said they voted for Clinton.

Sanders also won 54 percent of voters who identified as independent, another group he has routinely appealed to throughout this year’s race to the Democratic nomination.

Retired teacher Elvira Kennedy, 70, voted for Clinton in Columbia.

“America has never stopped being great, but we just to need to make Americas whole again”, Clinton said, in reference to Trump’s campaign motto of ‘Let’s Make America Great Again.’ “Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers”.

“Tomorrow this campaign goes national”, she said.

Traditionally the Democratic primary in SC is far less meaningful than its Republican counterpart.

“There is only one candidate that has to win SC and it is not Bernie Sanders”, Justin Bamberg, a SC state representative who supports the Vermont senator told CNN’s “New Day” on Saturday.

Hillary was vying for the African-American vote in SC. Seventy-four percent of the Democratic electorate said the next president should generally continue Obama’s policies, and Clinton won those voters 81 to 19 percent, per exit polls.

The Democratic nominee will need to win 2,383 delegates at the national convention in Philadelphia in July. She won a decisive victory in SC.