Joe Biden Surges in South Carolina, Florida, Throwing Wrench into Sanders’ Easy Victory
Richard Moorhead
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Joe Biden appears to be surging in the forthcoming Democratic primary state of South Carolina, throwing a wrench into what some have called an easy path to victory for frontrunner Bernie Sanders.
Biden has looked to South Carolina as a redoubt for his campaign after struggling mightily in the first three primary and caucus states. After Sanders’ resounding Nevada victory, he appeared set to challenge the former Vice President in the first southern state to vote, but the latest rounds of polling reveal that Biden has the state on lock.
A Monmouth University poll released Thursday showed Biden with a blowout lead of twenty percentage points in the Palmetto state. Biden has made appeal to African American voters a crucial element of his primary strategy, and the South Carolina polling suggests he’s retained strong support from black voters, even after his early campaign mishaps. African American voters form a majority of the state’s Democratic primary electorate.
Sanders languishes in a distant second in the poll, trailing Biden by a margin of 36% to 16%. Other polling recently conducted shows Biden with a smaller lead, but Sanders is yet to take the lead in a South Carolina poll with two days before the election.
New polling also shows the former Vice President retaking the lead in the Super Tuesday state of Florida, leading second-place Michael Bloomberg by a strong margin of nine percent. Sanders is all the way in third place in the Florida St. Pete poll, and such a finish in one of the first big states to vote after Super Tuesday would likely ensure that the Democratic Primary remains wide open.
Biden’s polling suggests that the career politician might actually have a chance to consolidate support from self-identifying ‘moderate’ Democrats, after competitors like Pete Buttigieg and Michael Bloomberg appeared set to eat his lunch.
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