Democrats to Vote in Suspenseless Primary on Saturday

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Democrats across the state of South Carolina will vote in a first-in-the-South primary on Saturday in which the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

President Joe Biden is expected to win handily. The only question is how many people will actually turn out at the polls and how many Democrats might opt instead to vote in the Republican primary later this month to bolster former Gov. Nikki Haley’s challenge to former President Donald Trump.

In South Carolina, both parties run so-called “open” primaries, allowing anyone, regardless of registration, to vote in their contests.

Saturday’s vote — the first 2024 bout between candidates sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee — followed a rule change endorsed by Biden that moved South Carolina ahead of the traditionally early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Just over a week ago, the president triumphed as a write-in candidate in an unsanctioned race in New Hampshire, garnering 63.9% of the vote.

Second place finisher Rep. Dean Phillips, R-Minn., got 19.6% and author Marianne Williamson, received 4%.

Still, Biden has left little to chance in South Carolina, campaigning in the state twice in as many weeks and sending in surrogates, such as Vice President Kamala Harris, who made multiple visits, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Housing and Urban Development Director Marcia Fudge, to rouse the electorate and urge voters to get to the polls.

While campaigning in the state, Biden and the others have been particularly engaged in courting Black voters. Though African Americans make up just 26% of South Carolina’s population, they are a voting block that overwhelmingly trends Democratic.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 78% of Blacks in the state identify themselves as Democratic voters or leaning toward supporting the party. Officially, voter registrations in the state are nonpartisan.

“You’re the reason I am president,” Biden said in a pitch to those voters in Columbia, South Carolina, last week. “You’re the reason Kamala Harris is a historic vice president. And you’re the reason Donald Trump is a defeated former president.”

As for Biden’s competition in the primary, Phillips has visited the state at least once since the New Hampshire primary and spoke at the “First-in-the-Nation” celebration dinner at which the president was keynote speaker, last Saturday.

However, he’s spent much of the past week focused on Wisconsin, where he’s filed a petition with the state Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to get on the state’s April 2 primary ballot.

Phillips asked the justices to declare a state Presidential Preference Selection Committee, run jointly by the Democratic and Republican Parties of Wisconsin, ignored state law when it left his name off its list of candidates who would appear on the April ballot.

Phillips’ attorney argued Wisconsin law requires the preference committee to put “all candidates whose candidacy is generally advocated or recognized in the national news media” on primary ballots. The statute also says the committee “shall have sole discretion” to determine who qualifies under that guidance.

“Wisconsin voters subsidize the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s primary election and they deserve a true primary, in which they are free to vote for the same nationally recognized candidates who are appearing on other states’ ballots,” Phillips’ petition said.

The committee responded by arguing Phillips has known since at least Jan. 2 that he had not been included on the ballot, but didn’t start a petition drive or file a legal challenge until three weeks later.

To put him on the ballot, the committee says, would put an undue burden on county clerks, who need to print and mail ballots to military and overseas voters no later than Feb. 15.

As for Marianne Williamson, the self-help author made a beeline for Nevada immediately after the New Hampshire primary, concluding it is her best chance to secure at least some delegates. Nevada will hold its Democratic primary on Feb. 6.

“You might have noticed I’m not there,” she said in a video message to South Carolina voters earlier this week.

“But I’m sure you have also noticed there is such a political machine in South Carolina [that it is] very difficult to fight,” she said.

After briefly mentioning her decision to focus on Nevada, she added, “That doesn’t mean I’m not on the ballot in South Carolina, because I am. So you can still vote for me.”

Any candidate who receives more than 15% of the vote on Saturday will receive a proportional share of the state’s 65 delegates, who will then cast their vote for that candidate at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, in August.

There are 3.3 million registered voters in South Carolina.

In 2016, when the primary was a two-way contest between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., 370,904 voters went to the polls, or about 13% of the total registered.

Four years later, in 2020, when there were 12 candidates on the ballot, 539,263 voters participated, nudging the percentage up to 16% of all registered voters.

State officials are anticipating a much lower count this year; as of last Monday, only 24,000 people had participated in early voting.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue