The President of the United States, Joe Biden, easily won this Saturday the Democratic primary in South Carolina, a state with a majority African-American electorate that allowed him in 2020 to save his then shaky candidacy for the White House. The incumbent president defeated the two highest-ranking co-religionists on the ballot: Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson.
“In 2020, it was South Carolina voters who proved that [demoscópicos] “They were wrong, they breathed new life into our campaign and put us on the path to winning the presidency,” the candidate said in a statement. “Now, in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again, and I have no doubt that you have put us on the path to winning the presidency again and making Donald Trump a loser again.”
His personal bet that South Carolina would be the first date for the party's primary, citing the greater racial diversity of the state's population compared to the more traditional, predominantly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire, was well worth the effort He submitted to the Democrat The first of these was the change to the electoral calendar, which moved the race in that state from fourth place to first. South Carolina is a red state, but 26% of its residents are black. In the 2020 general election, Black voters made up 11% of the national electorate, and 9 in 10 of them supported Biden.
The Democrats' campaign for the November 5 election begins today. However, Biden had already achieved important victories such as that of New Hamsphire, where, although his name did not appear on the ballot, he received 64% of the vote, as he reminded journalists this Saturday at the airfield in Delaware that the one who has a After winning the victory, he traveled to Los Angeles and Las Vegas to attend campaign events.
The African-American electorate is key to his chances in November against Republican Donald Trump, leading several voting intention polls. But discouragement has never been a characteristic of Biden, and this Saturday he again gave enthusiastic addresses to his people, once again describing the presidential election as a fight for the survival of democracy itself. Biden has attacked the behavior of Trump, who, in his opinion continued to degrade himself. “The guy we’re up against isn’t there for anything. “He’s against everything,” he said in Delaware, hours before South Carolina’s results were announced.
Biden has expressed his belief that the contrast between him and Trump will help his candidacy as Americans begin to turn their attention to the upcoming election. “People are starting to focus,” he said, pointing to a recent Quinnipiac University poll that shows him six points ahead of Trump, even though other polls give the Republican a clear advantage. Biden also cited two polls from Pennsylvania that give him an advantage in that state.
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The optimism of Biden, whose rallies are almost invariably interrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators accusing him of his support for Israel – that happened again this Saturday in Bel Air, where six vehicles with large Palestinian flags greeted the passage of his delegation – This is present especially the victory in New Hampshire. “By the way, we weren’t on the ballot in New Hampshire. We couldn't campaign there. But you know what: we got 64%,” he happily recalled to reporters.
“We have a lot at stake, friends. “We have an enormous obligation,” he said about his election campaign and, from a political perspective, even an existential dispute with the Republican Trump. “This is not just a campaign. This is more of a mission. We can't, we can't lose for the good of the country. And I say it from the bottom of my heart. “It’s not about me, it’s way beyond me.”
Despite the candidate's optimism and the positive polls he exploits, polls like the one published this Friday by CNN confirm the trend of recent months: a minimal but constant advantage for Trump, with 49% support, over Biden, with 45%. Although improving the economy could benefit the Democrat, the truth is that he is unable to capitalize on the percentage support of the recovery. His immigration and foreign policies have the worst prospects, with the former having the lowest approval rating (just 30%). His stance on the war between Israel and Hamas, which threatens to cost him many votes in states like Michigan, among younger Democratic voters and also among the African-American electorate, is based on the fact that only 37% believe that, according to the CNN poll , that the United States is doing the right thing, while 33% think it is going too far in its support of Israel.
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