The Washington Post's Dave Weigel notes that the "biggest turnout surge" in the Palmetto State came in the 1st Congressional District, which runs along about 100 miles of coastline from north of Charleston down to Hilton Head. It's an affluent area with a high concentration of white voters that has historically been a Republican stronghold, though freshman Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham flipped the seat blue in 2018. Since South Carolina has an open primary, some conservative-leaning voters likely participated in Saturday’s contest. (The Post reports that statewide only 5% of voters identified as Republican, while nearly a quarter of them identified as “independent or something else.”)

In Charleston and Beaufort counties, which accounted for the majority of new voters, both Biden and Sanders underperformed their statewide numbers as voters settled on one of three other alternatives: Warren, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar.

"There is a substantial bloc of white, liberal suburbanites who are seeking a fresh alternative to Biden or Sanders, and they simply can't make a decision," wrote Weigel. "If there was a winner in this bracket [Saturday], it was arguably Warren. Exit polling found her running far stronger with voters who made up their minds 'in the last few days,' getting 11 percent of those voters while getting just four percent of early deciders."

But with both Buttigieg and Klobuchar leaving the field, Super Tuesday voters who prefer a Biden/Sanders alternative will no longer be dividing their loyalties. Bloomberg may figure into that "alternative" equation to some extent, but more than likely voters who were already choosing between Warren/Buttigieg/Klobuchar won't suddenly revert to the race's quasi-Democratic billionaire option.

Additionally, Warren's favorability rating among Democratic voters continues to be high. "Warren also came out of the race with the highest favorable ratings of any surviving candidate except for Biden: a 12-point net favorability rating, to eight points for Sanders and seven points for Buttigieg," Weigel noted.