During the last Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton made it a strategic imperative to align herself with President Barack Obama at every turn.

Standing in front of a predominately African-American audience in Charleston, South Carolina, Clinton not only portrayed herself as the president’s preeminent ally, but tarred Bernie Sanders as an Obama antagonist, if not an outright opponent.

Watching it all unfold inside a separate room, a group of 30 undecided South Carolina Democrats – including 14 African-Americans – weren’t buying it.

According to a debate night focus group conducted by Park Street Strategies, when Clinton attacked the Vermont senator for a lack of strong support of Obama, “her scores sunk in the dials, hitting the low 40s.”

“While the group held a very positive opinion of the President, Clinton’s constant mentions of Obama were mainly perceived by many as an obvious attempt to gain support through him,” wrote Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist and CEO of Park Street Strategies, in a memo.

Afterwards, Sanders moved 14 of the 30 undecided respondents towards him, while only two said they favored Clinton. Perhaps the most stunning finding coming out of the debate was that Sanders bested the former secretary of state on what’s perceived to be her ace in the hole in the 2016 Democratic primary – electability – by a count of 15 to 14.

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“While this is just one focus group, if the issue of electability were ever to shift dramatically to Sanders’ advantage, this race would quickly and dramatically change,” wrote Kofinis. “There is an opening for him to move not only South Carolina Democrats, but potentially the critical voting bloc of South Carolina African Americans.”

A week before the Iowa caucuses, in which Sanders and Clinton are fastened in a down-to-the-wire race, the Sanders’ campaign is seeing gains in the Palmetto State, the first-in-the-south primary that is still a month away.

While Sanders is threatening Clinton in Iowa and holding a clear lead over her in New Hampshire, the Clinton camp has long looked to South Carolina as the state that would turn the tide. African-Americans are expected to make up more than half of the Democratic primary vote there and Clinton has consistently dominated support of that key demographic.

But now there are signs of cracks in her command.

A CBS News/YouGov poll taken last week showed Clinton’s lead over Sanders in South Carolina has been trimmed to 22 points – still formidable – but down from her 36 point advantage in mid-December.

On Monday, a state representative and the attorney for Walter Scott, a South Carolina man who was fatally shot by a police officer last April, announced he was switching his support from Clinton to Sanders.

In a conference call Monday, State Rep. Justin Bamberg said it was Sanders’ audacious agenda that prompted the change.

“Don’t tell me that we can not provide Americans the right to health care because that right is a matter of life and death for many Americans,” Bamberg said.

The Sanders campaign followed Bamberg’s presentation with the announcement that they were preparing their first statewide advertising buy in the state, covering every television market.

"Communication on television is going to be extremely key,” said Chris Covert, Sanders’ state director in South Carolina.

The findings of the Park Street Strategies focus group suggest that Sanders’ should use his paid media to highlight his anti-Wall Street message.

“Respondents dialed Sanders’ answers extremely high every time he attacked Wall Street, when he talked about breaking up the big banks, and when he discussed the need to strengthen our working and middle class families. He often hit scores in the 80s and low 90s with this rhetoric,” said Kofinis.

Meanwhile, the group warned that Clinton’s attacks on Sanders “proved not only ineffective, but backfired.”

Participants perceived her answers to questions as scripted, rehearsed and lacking a larger overarching vision, whereas they saw Sanders speaking to their frustrations and anxieties all while dutifully returning to his core argument of the country’s wage gap.

That also seems to be the formula for him to follow to make substantial inroads with African-Americans, which he will need to do in order to come close to Clinton.

The focus group that Sanders’ overall dial scores with African-Americans shot up 10 to 15 points higher when he discussed economic inequality.

The dial focus group of South Carolina Democrats comprised 15 men and 15 women, ranging in ages from 27 to 65. Asked simply to choose who won the debate, the group voted for Sanders, 27 to 2.