ROCK HILL, South Carolina — Pete Buttigieg has been telling voters ahead of South Carolina's primary he can build a broader coalition to win the presidency than Sen. Bernie Sanders, but the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, continues to struggle to reach voters of color.

"I respect the ideals that he's speaking about," Buttigieg told a mostly white crowd of about 900 Thursday evening in diverse Rock Hill, "but I believe in a time like this we've got to earn the presidency by calling people in, not by calling people names online."

Sanders won Nevada partly on the strength of the state's Latino vote and appears poised to receive significant support from African Americans in South Carolina.

Buttigieg's struggle to reach voters of color showed during his stop at Rock Hill, a city of about 70,000 a half-hour south of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rock Hill, a growing community with a vibrant downtown not unlike South Bend, is about 40 percent black. The vast majority of people who came to hear Buttigieg speak, though, were white. The crowd, in fact, was only slightly more diverse than what he drew in the two mostly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Buttigieg drew loud cheers when he spoke about his Douglass Plan to help African Americans and fight systemic racism. He also said he is the best candidate to defeat President Donald Trump.

"Don’t you think it would make sense for him to have to confront on the debate stage a veteran," Buttigieg said, "who can remind him why pardoning war criminals and punishing war heroes is not the action of a patriot. I’m ready to go toe to to with this president."

Mother and daughter Amber Payne and Sharon Jones were among the few black voters in the crowd.

Payne, 36, Spartanburg, said she is unsure why Buttigieg isn't resonating more with African Americans and she thinks they would like him more if they heard more from him. She said Joe Biden remains popular with black voters, especially in the South, because he was Barack Obama’s vice president.

“I think people like the familiar and they miss Barack Obama compared to what we have right now.”

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Payne, who works for a TV station in upstate South Caorlina, supported Buttigieg after reviewing his Douglass Plan for African Americans last summer, specifically saying she liked promises to strengthen voting rights and affordable housing. She thinks the plan would help eliminate racism she thinks has been spurred by the Trump campaign. She plans to vote for Buttigieg in Saturday's primary and wanted to hear him speak.

“I also love the fact that he is a veteran,” she said. “He’s young. He has good ideas. He has a fresh outlook compared to all of the other candidates.”

Her mother, Jones, 65, a retired teacher who lives near Greenville, South Carolina, said the party could use Buttigieg’s youthful energy, but she hasn’t made up her mind between him and Biden.

“Biden was the VP under Obama,” she said, “and he just seems like a straight shooter. I just trust him.”

Buck Howarth, 51, a contractor who lives in Tega Cay and leans Republican, said he can't handle Trump anymore. He is torn between voting for Buttigieg, whom he finds well spoken, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Asked how Buttigieg is doing in South Carolina, Howarth was frank.

"South Carolina is a pretty red state," he said. "I don't know that I've heard a lot of banter."

Although most in the crowd cheered enthusiastically for Buttigieg, not everyone was a fan.

Steve Weiler, 56, a sales representative from Fort Mill, South Carolina, drove around in a car with President Trump’s image printed on the side rear windows. Later, he got in line, wearing a white hat with Trump’s name and carrying an American flag.

If Buttigieg was elected, he said he is concerned about how to explain to his children, including his 32-year-old son, that the president is gay. Weiler said he admires Buttigieg because he is intelligent and articulate, but Weiler said he has a different belief system based on his reading of the Bible.

“How do we tell our youth if Mr. Buttigieg gets into the White House,” Weiler said, “how do we explain to them? … I’m not judgmental. What he does is his own business. But as an American and as a Christian, how are we going to approach this if he gets into the White House?”

Ben Boyles, 38, a university extension agent from Rock Hill, South Carolina, overheard Weiler and shook his head.

“I think it’s incredibly sad,” Boyles said. “Short-sighted. Narrow-minded. All of those things. What can you say? You have to smile and nod and understand people have their feelings or beliefs.”

Boyles said he loves Buttigieg’s pragmatic, intellectual approach to issues and wanted to hear more from him.

“I think I’d like to see him on a debate stage with Trump,” Boyles said.

Call IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at 317-444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich.