Biden breaks away from 2020 pack in South Carolina

Joe Biden has broken away from the pack in South Carolina, maintaining a crucial early lead that could function as a failsafe for the former vice president’s primary campaign.

With the Iowa caucuses roughly two weeks away, the race in the Hawkeye State is knotted among four candidates: Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

And recent polls in New Hampshire and Nevada, the second and third states to vote, respectively, show a similar conundrum, with Biden competing for first place with at least one other candidate.

But he has largely broken away in South Carolina, the fourth early voting state and the first in which black voters make up a majority of the Democratic electorate.

A Fox News poll this month showed Biden leading the pack in the state with 36 percent support among likely Democratic primary voters, a more than 20-point lead over the second-place candidate, billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer. Among black voters in the state, Biden registered 43 percent support, while Steyer notched 16 percent.

“Biden has the African American support here, and that support is not just wide; it’s deep,” said Antjuan Seawright, a South Carolina-based Democratic strategist.



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/478827-biden-breaks-away-from-2020-pack-in-south-carolina