COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Joe Biden assembled a rainbow coalition that carried him to victory in South Carolina.
As expected, the former vice president decisively won black voters, who make up a majority of South Carolina’s Democratic primary electorate. Exit polls showed Biden’s support with them was 60%.
But his true show of strength was his ability to come in first among a variety of demographics, including white voters, where he bested Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 1 point, at 26%.
In areas where socialist Sanders should have been a natural favorite, like self-described “very liberal” voters, Biden once again came out ahead. Thirty-nine percent of that group picked Biden, versus 30% for the Vermont senator. Among those who said that the U.S. economic system needed a complete overhaul, Biden was again the favorite at 45%.
He won men. He won women. He won those who said that they were looking for a candidate who aligned with them on major issues and among those more concerned with picking a candidate who can beat President Trump in November.
Biden lost just two demographics, including those aged 17 to 29, 46% of whom went for Sanders while 24% voted for Biden. Despite Sanders promising a surge of young support in the weeks leading up to the primary, they made up just 11% of the primary electorate.
Among the 17% of South Carolina Democratic primary voters who said that they never go to church, 37% went for Sanders, and 19% voted for Biden.
Sanders’s performance in the state looked much like a repeat of 2016. In that cycle, Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton with just over 26% of the vote. Clinton won every county and earned 86% of the black vote and narrowly won the white vote as well.
The electorate this time around should have favored Sanders. Just 55% of voters were black, compared with 61% in 2016. That 6-point difference could have made him more competitive, but Biden’s grip across almost every demographic meant the race was never in question.
Biden’s win across ages, ideologies, and race was reflected in the makeup of his events. The crowd at his primary night victory party at the University of South Carolina had a notable mix of ages and roughly equal black and white attendees.
A rally at Coastal Carolina University on Thursday brought out many more white voters and young students and staff who wandered into the event, while a morning town hall in Sumter, South Carolina, on Friday brought out retirees and a large proportion of black voters.
