Joe Biden, long considered the Democrats’ frontrunner, finally won a state, as South Carolina was called for the former vice president the minute polls closed.
‘Just days ago the press and the pundits had declared this candidacy dead,’ Biden said. ‘Now, thanks to you – the heart of the Democratic Party – we haven’t just won. We won big, and we are very much alive.’
Biden used his speech at his Columbia, South Carolina headquarters Saturday night to knock around the self-proclaimed democratic socialist, who was trailing him by around 30 points with about three-quarters of the vote in.
‘If Democrats want a nominee who’s a Democrat, a life-long Democrat, a proud Democrat, an Obama-Biden Democrat, join us,’ he told his crowd.
He said with a Biden nomination the Democrats could take the White House from President Trump, keep the House in Nancy Pelosi’s hands and grab the Senate from the Republicans. ‘We have the option to win it big or lose it big,’ he said of the November 2020 election.
‘Most Americans don’t want the promise of revolution. They want more than promises – they want results,’ he said. ‘False promises are deceptive. And talk of a revolution isn’t changing anyone’s life,’ Biden stated, knocking Sanders.
Joe Biden proclaimed that his campaign was ‘very much alive’ after beating Bernie Sanders soundly in South Carolina
South Carolina primary winner Joe Biden (right) enters his Columbia, South Carolina primary night party with wife Jill Biden (left) and daughter Ashley Biden (center)
Joe Biden’s win was helped by the endorsement of Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third most powerful Democrat in the House of Representatives, who named Biden his chosen candidate in Charleston on Wednesday
Joe Biden (right) holds onto Rep. James Clyburn (left), the powerful South Carolina congressman whose Wednesday endorsement helped put the former vice president over the line in the Palmetto State
Daughter Ashley Biden (left) and wife Jill Biden (center left) watch as Joe Biden (right) delivers remarks to supporters after winning the South Carolina primary Saturday night in Columbia. Rep. James Clyburn (center right) introduced the ex-veep
A grinning Joe Biden (center) and clapping James Clyburn (right) addressed a crowd in Columbia Saturdah night, as Biden’s wife Jill (left) smiled for the crowd
Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley (left) wipes away a hear as her father speaks as his wife Jill (right) watches him make his victory address in Columbia, South Carolina
Ashley Biden (left) and Jill Biden (right) applaud for Joe Biden, who won the South Carolina Democratic primary easily on Saturday night
Biden also suggested in his speech that with this one win, he was starting to lock the Democratic nomination up.
‘The moment to choose the path forward for our party has arrived. Maybe sooner than anyone guessed or wanted. But it’s here,’ he told the crowd.
‘And the decisions Democrats make all across America in the next few days will determine what this party stands for, what we believe, and what we will get done,’ he added.
At Biden’s headquarters in Columbia, South Carolina supporters screamed when Biden was called the winner the minute polls closed, as MSNBC played on the jumbotron at University of South Carolina’s volleyball center.
Directly after, Jazzy Trinity, the band playing the event, started performing ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by the Black Eyes Peas.
Biden’s win was called with 0 per cent reporting because exit polls had signaled such good news for the former vice president.
More than half of those who cast ballots were black, a stronghold for President Obama’s vice president.
Nearly half say that Rep. James Clyburn’s endorsement – which was for Biden – was an important factor in their vote, according to the Washington Post.
And about half said they wanted the next president to return to Obama’s policies, rather than dramatically shaking up the country, which is in line with what Biden’s has proposed.
Clyburn introduced Biden Saturday night and will campaign for him in North Carolina too.
‘We have as our candidate a real good man,’ Clyburn told the crowd.
‘You do not have to be bombastic to get your point across. You don’t have to call people names to have your positions understood. You don’t have to tell falsehoods in order to make headlines,’ the South Carolina Democrat said.
Clyburn then had ‘good man’ Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill and daughter Ashley, take the stage.
Biden said of Clyburn, and the voters of South Carolina, ‘you lifted me and this campaign on your shoulders’
‘I will never forget what you have done for us,’ Biden said.
President Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale responded to the news of Biden trouncing Sanders by saying, ‘Once again, President Trump is the clear winner because not one of these candidates has a chance at beating him in November.’
President Trump took it a step further, suggesting Biden’s win essentially snuffed out any hope for Mike Bloomberg winning the Democratic primary.
‘Sleepy Joe Biden’s victory in the South Carolina Democrat Primary should be the end of Mini Mike Bloomberg’s Joke of a campaign,’ the president tweeted. ‘After the worst debate performance in the history of presidential debates, Mini Mike now has Biden split up his very few voters, taking many away!’
South Carolina could finally give Joe Biden a win. The former vice president was photographed Saturday at a polling site in Greenville, as Democratic voters from the Palmetto State choose their primary pick
Joe Biden’s supporters let out loud cheers when the jumbotron in the volleyball center at the University of South Carolina broadcast that the ex-vice president easily won the state’s Saturday primary
President Trump floated that Joe Biden’s win in South Carolina essentially ended the campaign of Mike Bloomberg, another 2020 Democrat trying to attract the support of moderates and independents
Joe Biden supporters react to the news that their candidate won the South Carolina, with the race called as soon as polls closed at 7 p.m. EST
A Joe Biden supporter cheers in victory as the vice president wins his first Democratic primary of the 2020 contest
Joe Biden supporters await the vice president’s speech Saturday night in Columbia, South Carolina
A supporter of Joe Biden reacts to the result that her choice candidate won the first-in-the-south primary Saturday in South Carolina
A campaign volunteer sports a ‘We’re Ridin’ With Biden’ t-shirt at Joe Biden’s Columbia, South Carolina election night party Saturday
In protest, Bloomberg’s campaign manager Kevin Sheekey sent out a statement that began, ‘Mike Bloomberg has not been on the ballot yet.’
Biden had been trying to recover from his fourth place finish in Iowa and his fifth place loss in New Hampshire, as the Real Clear Politics polling average has Bernie Sanders nationally more than 10 points ahead of the former vice president.
One week ago, Biden had his best showing yet – second place in the Nevada caucuses, though he came in far behind Sanders. He earned about 20 per cent of the vote to Sanders’ 47 per cent.
‘Well, you all did it for me!’ Biden told a crowd of supporters gathered at a union hall in Las Vegas. He spoke as NBC News was calling the caucuses for Sanders.
‘Now we are going on to South Carolina to win and we’re going to take this back,’ Biden announced. Biden had previously called South Carolina his ‘firewall.’
Upon the race being called for Biden, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe endorsed Biden on CNN and said he would campaign with him over the next three days.
‘I’ve always said that our best leader is one who can build a broad coalition, including African American voters who are the heart of the Democratic Party. After South Carolina, it is clear Joe Biden is that leader,’ McAuliffe said in a statement, sent out by Biden’s campaign.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia, is also backing Biden.
Virginia voters head to the polls Tuesday, as part of ‘Super Tuesday.’
South Carolina was once again be a bump in the road for Sanders, who lost the first-in-the-south primary to Hillary Clinton four years ago by a whopping 47 points.
‘I am very proud that campaign so far,’ Sanders told a crowd of cheering supporters in Norfolk.
‘We have won the popular vote in Iowa. We have won the new Hampshire primary. We have won the Nevada caucus. You cannot win ’em all,’ he said.
Bernie Sanders spent Saturday night in the ‘Super Tuesday’ state of Virginia and congratulated Joe Biden for his win there, while also telling supporters ‘nobody wins’ every state
Democratic hopeful Tom Steyer decided to bow out of the race Saturday night after the results showed he wouldn’t be winning any delegates in a state he had pinned his presidential hopes to
Sanders observed there are a ‘lot of states out there.’
‘And tonight we did not win in South Carolina,’ the Vermont senator said. ‘There are a lot of states in this country. Nobody wins them all,’ he reiterated.
‘I want to congratulate Joe Biden on his victory tonight,’ he said, to only a smattering of applause. ‘And now we have to win super Tuesday in Virginia!’
Tom Steyer, the billionaire who funded the ‘Need to Impeach’ effort against President Trump and never held elected office, was in third place when he decided to exit the race, making the announcement after Biden finished his remarks.
Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was in fourth place, followed by Elizabeth Warren in fifth and Amy Klobuchar in sixth.
Warren had memorable debate performances in both Nevada and South Carolina, going after billionaire candidate Bloomberg, who decided to skip the first four states, instead laying the groundwork for a ‘Super Tuesday’ delegate haul.
Polls showed Bernie Sanders (right) in a comfortable second place leading up to voting day in South Carolina. He held his last South Carolina rally Friday afternoon in Columbia, where he appeared alongside rapper Big Mike (left)
Bernie Sanders got crushed in South Carolina four years ago, losing to Hillary Clinton by about 47 points
Pete Buttigieg looked to be in a battle for third place in the state. He held a town hall Friday night in Columbia that attracted just over 1,000 people and attended a canvass kick-off event in the capital city Saturday morning, before leaving to campaign in Super Tuesday states
Elizabeth Warren hoped to get some momentum from two memorable debate performances, where she went after billionaire candidate Mike Bloomberg, who is not competing in the South Carolina primary
Tom Steyer’s (left) South Carolina primary eve event featured the rapper Juvenile (right) and a joint performance of the 1999 hit ‘Back That Azz Up’
‘Super Tuesday’ is this Tuesday and Democratic voters from 14 states will select their candidates of choice.
Hoping that she might see some momentum out of the back-to-back debates, Warren stuck around South Carolina Saturday and continued to campaign.
Warren failed to break 10 per cent.
At the same time, Sanders headed to Warren’s home state of Massachusetts, to see if his neighborly status as the senator from Vermont could attract a sizeble amount of the state’s voters, who will vote Tuesday.
USA Today reported that more than 10,000 people showed up Saturday in Boston to hear Sanders speak.
Sanders’ last event in South Carolina didn’t draw anywhere near that amount of people.
He chose his final event to take place in Columbia, the state’s capital and the home of the University of South Carolina, as well as several other schools, on Friday afternoon.
There, he invited actor Danny Glover and rapper Big Mike, along with a number of black local officials, to help him earn over more of the important African-American vote in the southern state.
Killer Mike, a supporter of Sanders’ since 2016, specifically tailored his message to black voters.
‘Listen to me black people in South Carolina. I’m talking to black people in South Carolina,’ the rapper told the crowd. ‘If it rhymes with slow, don’t vote for it. If the name is “Mike” don’t vote for it.’
As South Carolina voters headed to the polls, Bernie Sanders held a rally that attracted 10,000 people in Boston, Massachusetts. He’ll be in Virginia Beach, Virginia around the time South Carolina’s polls close
Only polling in the single digits in South Carolina, Amy Klobuchar headed to Richmond, Virginia Saturday to campaign in the ‘Super Tuesday’ state instead
While polling indicates that Sanders has made some progress in earning the support of black voters nationally, in South Carolina Biden had the benefit of the high-profile endorsement of Clyburn, the third most powerful Democrat in the House of Representatives.
Clyburn put his weight – and his political machine in the state – behind Biden on Wednesday.
‘But I want the public to know that I am voting for Joe Biden, South Carolinians should be voting for Joe Biden,’ Clyburn said at the press conference announcing his decision.
The other candidates have worked to get the support of members of the black community too.
Before dropping out, Steyer’s last big effort was his Friday night event at Allen University, a historically black college in Columbia.
There, he invited the rapper Juvenile to come play for his crowd of mostly college-age supporters. The billionaire candidate also put out a spread for attendees that included fruits, cheese, charcuterie and a mashed potato bar.
After a sound snafu prevented Juvenile from performing his full set before Steyer’s speech, the rapper and the candidate came out onstage at the end of the night and performed Juvenile’s 1999 hit ‘Back That Azz Up’ together.
Juvenile later told the press that he was giving Steyer his endorsement, because of the policy proposals the candidate pitched that were aimed at the black community.
Midwestern candidates Buttigieg and Klobuchar have struggled to add black voters to their base.
Klobuchar, hoping for better luck in the Super Tuesday states, headed to Richmond, Virginia on Saturday.
Buttigieg held a final event in Columbia, South Carolina Friday night – a town hall that attracted a little more than 1,000 people. He held a canvassing event with supporters Saturday morning.
He saw bigger crowd on Saturday, however, as the young mayor stumped in Nashville, Tennessee.
Earlier in the week in Charleston, Buttigieg attracted protesters from ‘Black Voters Matter,’ as he tried to march in solidarity with fast food workers asking for a minimum wage bump to $15 an hour.
‘Pete can’t be our president, where was $15 in South Bend?’ the protesters shouted.
Indiana law prevents mayors from setting their own minimum wage.