COLUMBIA, South Carolina – President Biden isn’t too concerned about winning Saturday’s Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina.
He is expected to win the competition with a landslide victory.
Caroline from the south, where Black voters play an outsized role in Democratic politics, is at the top of the party’s official presidential nomination calendar for the first time, thanks in large part to Biden.
And state Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain told Fox News on the eve of the contest that “this primary is contested, but it’s not competitive.”
But for Biden, the mission is bigger than just winning big in the Palmetto State primary.
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President Joe Biden, right, greets a seated customer as Landry Phillips, left, and Chynna Phillips, owners of Regal Lounge hair salon and spa, look on in Columbia, South Carolina, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The president aims to solidify his support among black voters in South Carolina and across the country. These voters, who four years ago propelled Biden to first place Democratic nomination and ultimately to the White House, appear less energetic in 2024.
The president’s approval rating among black voters, who make up a crucial part of the Democratic Party’s base, has eroded over the past three years, posing a major concern for his re-election chances.
And while Black voters overwhelmingly voted for Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, The Republicans won.
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Former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for this year’s Republican nomination, is making a play for black and Hispanic voters.
Trump often points to the endorsement of black celebrities as a sign of his support within the black community.
Sen. Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, right, speaks next to former President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
And Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, a former GOP candidate for the 2024 White House and the only Black Republican in the Senate to endorse Trump last month, has emerged as the former president’s top surrogate.
“Have you seen our poll results among African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans? But I’m not that surprised because I see it, I feel it,” Trump argued while campaigning in the New Hampshire ahead of that state’s presidential primary.
Although Trump has suggested that “there is now a lot more enthusiasm” for him among minority voters, there is little polling evidence to support his claims.
But even a slight shift in voters from Biden to Trump — or the possibility that some Black voters frustrated by the lack of progress on key issues remain absent from the 2024 elections — could potentially make a difference in crucial states like Georgia, the Michigan and Pennsylvania. .
Black voters carried Biden to a landslide victory in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary four years ago, sparking his 2020 campaign.
The president, campaigning in South Carolina last weekend, thanked the mostly black audience at a state Democratic Party rally for helping him win the White House, adding “you are the reason why Donald Trump is a loser.
President Joe Biden speaks during the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Nation’s First Celebration at the State Fairgrounds, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Columbia, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr.)
Looking ahead to his likely rematch with Trump in November, Biden told the crowd “you’re the reason we’re going to win and beat him again.”
In a sign of the importance of the black vote, the president launched his re-election campaign last month at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine black parishioners were killed in a mass shooting in 2015.
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But some Democratic leaders have raised concerns about the president’s disappointing support among some black voters.
Spain told Fox News the key was getting the message out.
“I think it’s not enthusiasm, it’s information,” she said.
And Spain predicted that support would solidify “once we share information about how President Biden and Democrats have delivered on their promises.”
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally, Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, in Orangeburg, S.C. Harris campaigned in the state a day before the Democrats’ first presidential primary on Saturday. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
Vice President Harris, who made history as the nation’s first black female vice president, told the crowd at a get-out-the-vote rally at a historically black college in Orangeburg on the eve of the primary that “South Carolina , you are the first.” primary and President Biden and I are counting on you. »
And pointing the finger at Trump, Harris argued that “for years, the former president stoked the fires of hatred, bigotry, racism and xenophobia for his own power and political gain.”
“The former president has told us who he is, and so it is up to us to recognize the profound threat he poses to our democracy and our freedoms,” she warned the crowd.
James Levinson of Fox News contributed to this report
