Buoyed by massive support from African-American voters, Hillary Clinton virtually crushed Bernie Sanders in South Carolina on Saturday, recording her biggest win of the season just ahead of the crucial ‘Super Tuesday’ contests in 12 States. Exceeding expectations, she polled nearly 74 per cent of votes against her rival’s 26 per cent.
For Sanders, the humiliating defeat after sound performances in the previous three primaries signals a huge challenge in Tuesday’s contests in several other southern States, notably Texas and Georgia, which also have large numbers of African-American voters.
Exit polls in South Carolina indicated that an astounding 84 per cent of black voters went with Clinton, despite Sanders’ strenuous efforts in recent months to reach out to the community.
African-Americans have been a loyal support base for the Clintons from the 1990s, save for the 2008 primaries when Hillary Clinton lost out because the community decided to throw its weight behind a promising contestant from its own ranks – Barack Obama.
“Tomorrow, this campaign goes national,” Clinton said in her victory speech. “We are going to compete for every vote in every State. We are not taking anything and we are not taking anyone for granted.”
Despite the uphill battle that he now faces, Sanders sought to reassure his supporters that he will redouble his efforts. “let me be clear on one thing tonight: This campaign is just beginning. We won’t stop now,” he said, speaking in the more hospitable terrain of Minnesota in the north.
Clinton appeared to signal her confidence about winning the Democratic nomination by beginning to hit out at the Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
“Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers. We need to show by everything we do that we really are in this together,” she said taking a dig at Trump’s campaign thrust of building a wall along the US-Mexico border.
“Despite what you hear, we don’t need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great. But we need to make America whole again,” she said in a clear reference to what Democrats and several Republicans themselves have denounced as Trump’s divisive agenda.
Trump, meanwhile, landed one more important endorsement from Jan Brewer, the former Republican Governor of Arizona, closely following the ones from the serving Governors of New Jersey and Maine, Chris Christie and Paul lePage.