President Biden won the Democratic primary in South Carolina, scoring a landslide victory in 2024 in the state that brought him to the White House four years ago.

Biden defeated his top challengers in the Democratic vote in South Carolina on Saturday, including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson.

His reelection campaign invested heavily in boosting turnout in what it saw as a test run of its efforts to mobilize black voters, a Democratic bloc central to Biden’s chances in a likely November rematch against former President Trump.

In 2020, it was South Carolina voters who proved the experts wrong, revitalized our campaign and put us on a path to winning the presidency, Biden 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.

The Associated Press declared Biden the winner based on an analysis of early voting results that showed him with a decisive lead in key locations in the state.

His victory comes after he led an effort by the Democratic National Committee to have South Carolina finish first in the party’s primaries, citing states with more racially diverse populations compared to the traditional first-in- the-nation” states of Iowa and New Hampshire, which are overwhelming. white.

South Carolina is reliably Republican, but 26% of 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, according to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of voters from that election.

Biden pushed for a revamped primary calendar, with Nevada coming in second and holding its primaries on Tuesday. The new order also moves the Democratic primary in Michigan, a large and diverse swing state, to February 27, before a host of states, including California, vote on Super Tuesday, March 5.

New Hampshire rejected the DNC’s plan and held its first primary anyway last month. Biden did not campaign and his name was not on the ballot, but still won by a significant margin after supporters mounted a write-in campaign on his behalf.

South Carolina, where Biden has long cultivated deep relationships with supporters and donors, also played a crucial role in his 2020 campaign, where a big victory helped revive a weak effort in other early voting states and propelled him to the nomination.

Biden was joined by South Carolina Democratic Rep. James E. Clyburn, whose 2020 endorsement served as a long-awaited signal to the state’s Black voters that Biden would be the right candidate to advocate for their interests.

Clyburn said Saturday evening that he believed New Hampshire delegates should be at the party’s convention this summer and that Democrats should avoid further infighting.

Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve in the role, have consistently thanked state Democrats for their support.

Biden told attendees at a state party fundraiser a week ago that you are the reason I am president. He also argued to an audience of hundreds of party faithful that they were the reason Donald Trump is a loser. And you are the reason we would win and defeat him again, in the likely election matchup with the current frontrunner of the Republican Party.

Biden was in Delaware on Saturday before leaving the East Coast for a trip to California and Nevada. He attended an open house at his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, where he told supporters that voters across the country are beginning to focus on the election and that “polling data is increasing across the board. We can’t, we can’t, we can’t lose this campaign. for the good of the country, Biden said.

Biden also called on four Black radio stations to discuss the importance of the South Carolina primary, telling WJMZ Radio in Greenville: We have a large African American population in America, they deserve to have a say, especially in the Democratic Party , and a say in who the nominee should be.

Early Saturday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in the South Carolina capital: “We all know that because of the color of this, we, our great-grandparents, we couldn’t always vote here. Harrison, who was born in South Carolina and is black, pointed to his own skin.

That this president would say, “Jaime, all your life we ​​started this process in Iowa and New Hampshire, and now we’re going to start it in South Carolina.” No other president has ever decided to do that. issue,” Harrison added. “But Joe Biden did, and I will always be grateful to the president for giving us a chance, for seeing us and understanding how much we matter.

Many black Democrats in South Carolina are still loyal to Biden after he served as vice president to the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama.

The DNC sponsored a six-figure advertising campaign in the state and Nevada to increase enthusiasm for the president among black and Latino voters. Nevada’s population is 30% Latino.

Black voters interviewed during the recent early voting period cited a range of reasons for supporting Biden, from his administration’s defense of abortion rights to the appointment of Black lawyers and other minorities to the federal courts.

Some echoed Biden’s warnings that if Trump were to retake the White House, he would threaten democracy as he continues to spread lies that the 2020 vote was stolen.

We cannot live with a leader who turns this into a dictatorship. We cannot live in a place that is not a democracy. “That will be a downfall for America,” said LaJoia Broughton, a 42-year-old small business owner in Columbia. So my vote is with Biden. It was with Biden and it will remain with Biden.”

Some voters said they were concerned about the 81-year-old Biden’s age as many Americans have said they are in public polls. Trump is 77. Both men have had a series of public flubs that have raised concerns among some voters.

They’re the same age as me, and to have these two boys as the only choice, that’s kind of hard, said Charles Trower, a 77-year-old from Blythewood, S.C. But I’d much rather have President Biden than even consider the other guy.

The Democratic establishment and even potential presidential candidates who could have competed against the president from the left or center have rallied behind Biden. The DNC is also not planning any primary debates, while Phillips has disputed that his name does not appear on the primary ballots in Florida and North Carolina.

The president’s reelection campaign says it is already focusing on November’s general election. Biden’s campaign, the DNC and its other fundraising arms announced they raised more than $97 million in the final three months of last year and entered 2024 with $117.4 million in cash on hand. Trump amassed about $130 million in the last quarter of 2023 and had more than $42 million to start the election year.