Rudolph Bell

dbell@greenvillenews.com

It may be that Hillary Clinton looks back on South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary as the turning point for her second presidential campaign.

Palmetto State Democrats on Saturday handed the former first lady, senator and secretary of state a landslide victory over her rival for the party’s White House nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton had won 73 percent of the vote, compared to 26 percent for Sanders, according to The Associated Press.

It wasn’t Clinton’s first early-state win, but it was her largest margin of victory of the four states that have weighed in so far.

And it came in the state that was the first big test of the candidates’ appeal to African-American voters. They have historically accounted for half or more of voters in South Carolina’s Democratic primary.

Unofficial returns showed Clinton trouncing Sanders in counties with a high percentage of African-American voters.

In Richland County, where half of voters are black, according to the State Election Commission, Clinton captured more than 75 percent of the vote.

In Orangeburg County, where 65 percent of voters are black, Clinton ran away with 89 percent of the vote.

In Greenville County, where 77 percent of voters are white and where Sanders twice held rallies, Clinton garnered 64 percent of the vote, with 97 percent of precincts reporting.

In a victory speech from Columbia, Clinton thanked Sixth District Congressman Jim Clyburn of Columbia and two other South Carolina politicians who endorsed her – former Govs. Jim Hodges of Lancaster and Richard Riley of Greenville – as well as “all of our great South Carolina friends going back so many years.”

She also mentioned “parents and teachers in rural South Carolina” who “showed me crumbling classrooms in communities too long neglected.”

Clinton also promised “special support” for historically black colleges and universities “that play a special role in this state and across the country.”

Sanders was in Rochester, Minnesota, when the returns came in.

Clinton came to South Carolina with the advantage of name recognition and the lessons learned from the drubbing she took at the hands of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential primary.

Her campaign got organized on the ground early, locking down endorsements from mayors and lawmakers across the state.

And she scored a coveted endorsement when Clyburn, the only Democrat in South Carolina’s congressional delegation, abandoned years of neutrality in the presidential primary and announced that he was supporting her.

For Sanders, the question was always whether he could expand beyond his base of white liberals to include African-Americans and more-moderate Southern Democrats in the South’s first vote.

An early November poll from Winthrop University showed how daunting his challenge was. It found 71 percent of likely Democratic voters supporting Clinton, compared to 15 percent for Sanders.

Sanders’ support had doubled by the time a Bloomberg poll came out in mid-February, giving him 31 percent, compared to 53 percent for Clinton.

But Sanders wasn’t able to sustain the momentum and the clock ran out.

In the final week before Saturday’s vote, he had already begun looking ahead to the 11-state Super Tuesday contest and left South Carolina to campaign in states that vote March 1.

Some Upstate residents who voted for Clinton said they did it in part because they think she stands a better chance of winning the general election in November.

“Bernie’s idealism is exciting, but Hillary is more realistic,” said Paula Catterall, a 52-year-old compliance auditor, after casting her vote at the West End Community Development Center in downtown Greenville.

Adrius Cason, a 19-year-old Greenville Tech student, said he voted for Clinton because he wanted to make history by helping to elect the first woman president.

The number of ballots cast Saturday with results from two counties still missing was 368,875, according to the State Election Commission.

That’s a far cry from the 532,151 ballots cast in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary and less than half the 745,405 ballots cast in the Feb. 20 Republican presidential primary.

Extraordinary season

Saturday’s vote capped an extraordinary season for politics in South Carolina.

For both Democrats and Republicans, the state’s first-in-the-South presidential primaries proved important this election cycle.

Candidates from both parties spent months campaigning around the state.

Presidential politics was on the airwaves, in the newspapers and in the mailbox.

South Carolina hosted three party-sanctioned, nationally televised debates. The Democrats debated in Charleston and the Republicans in North Charleston and Greenville.

More than 13 million people watched the GOP debate in Greenville live from the Peace Center on CBS News.

Three politically conservative organizations – Citizens United, Heritage Action and Conservative Review – vetted GOP candidates during forums in Greenville.

Cable news channels broadcast town halls with Democratic and Republican candidates from Rock Hill, Columbia, Charleston and Greenville.

The Greenville Chamber hosted numerous candidates as part of a presidential series, as did South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and Palladian View, a digital magazine for conservative women based in Spartanburg.

Thousands gathered at Greenville’s TD Convention Center and Bon Secours Wellness Center to hear Sanders and Republican Donald Trump.

The presidential politics also brought famous non-candidates to South Carolina, including two former presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the national chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties, and a stream of pollsters, journalists, pundits, actors, musical entertainers and talk show hosts.

Clyburn and Republican Gov. Nikki Haley made national news by endorsing their favorites for the White House.

For former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, considered the GOP frontrunner early on, South Carolina turned out to be the end of the line.

He dropped out of the race after getting insufficient support from South Carolina Republicans, making the dramatic announcement from Columbia on election night while the returns were still coming in.

Election-night victory parties in South Carolina usually take place in Columbia, the capital city, but Trump celebrated his victory in the GOP primary from Spartanburg.

The 2016 election cycle also brought the historical rarity of a native son of South Carolina running for president.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham launched his ill-fated run for the White House from his hometown of Central before dropping out a little more than six months later at the bottom of the polls.

Staff writer Emily Patrick contributed to this report.