“He listened to the community,” one resident says. Others describe their former mayor as “accessible” and “light-years ahead of some people who have been in politics for many, many years.”

According to Advertising Analytics, Buttigieg has spent more than $730,000 on TV ads in South Carolina so far, and his campaign has booked airtime through the Feb. 29 primary. In contrast, Buttigieg’s top rivals in the early-voting states have not started TV advertising there yet. The bulk of the candidates’ money is going to Iowa right now: Democrats have spent a combined $30 million on TV ads there since January.

Biden, who has long considered South Carolina his “firewall” due to high black support, has aired a handful of TV ads in the state already, but his sustained advertising campaign in South Carolina isn’t scheduled to begin until late January, according to TV reservations tracked by Advertising Analytics. Sanders, who has polled in second place in the state recently and has run radio ads there, has not booked any TV ads yet. And Warren’s first South Carolina advertisements aren’t slated to start until late January, unless her campaign changes course.

But despite Buttigieg’s early start on advertising in South Carolina and focus on trying to appeal to black voters, Buttigieg’s standing among African Americans has remained marginal in recent surveys. Buttigieg polled at 2 percent among black voters in December data from Morning Consult, and he did not register with African Americans in a November Quinnipiac poll.

Buttigieg’s other advertisements in early primary states focus on "Medicare for All," workers’ rights and his record of military service. The ads will begin running as early as Tuesday afternoon.