Charleton, South Carolina – Democrats are now voting in South Carolina to decide who will be the democrat candidate for the presidential elections. The polls opened this morning and are scheduled to close at 7 p.m. eastern time.
Hillary Clinton is looking to Saturday’s South Carolina primary to mark her position as the undisputed front-runner in the Democratic White House race after her crucial victory over Bernie Sanders in Nevada last week. Winning in the state will give her a favorable sign going into Super Tuesday. On the other hand, her strongest competition Bernie Sanders tries to keep his insurgent campaign alive through the upcoming Super Tuesday when 11 states will vote.
Clinton has a roughly 30-point lead over Sanders in South Carolina, the fourth state to vote. And she appears to have the strong support among unions and African-American voters that she had hoped would help her when the campaigns move into the Deep South and other parts of the country.
Both Clinton and Sanders have left the state to visit other states preparing to vote on super Tuesday. Clinton plans to return to the state for Saturday night’s party but Sanders’s itinerary says he will be on a plane with no internet access, so it is not clear how or when Sanders might acknowledge the South Carolina results. Perhaps, the Vermont senator is expecting to lose in the state.
Clinton hopes to win in South Carolina with support of black voters
Hillary Clinton has worked for months to build with minority voters and has had deep relationships with the state’s African American community for decades. The state is considered a bellwether of support among black voters, who are crucial to winning the Democratic nomination.
Al Tucker, a 67-year-old African American in Columbia said they had made a lot of progress in the last eight years, and Hillary is the best person out there to continue the progress. He added that he believes Hillary would be good because she’s going to help them overcome education, poverty crises the state is going trough.
“I want to break every barrier that stands in the way of any American from getting ahead and staying ahead,” Clinton said in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on Friday. “I know that America can’t live up to its potential unless every person in our country has a chance to live up to his or hers.”
Sanders, on the other hand, has had more radical policy proposals to approach minority voters which include free public college and a $15 minimum wage. Vermont senator has also claimed he is against the criminal justice system’s mistreatment of black people which has given him support among voters who are uncomfortable with Clinton’s history of promoting harsh punishments for offenders when she was the first lady.
On health matter, Sanders has proposed a European-style system of government-provided healthcare that has gained her the support among younger blacks frustrated with the pace of change under the Obama administration.
Source: CNN