This week’s recurrent theme has been the Black vote, and which Democratic candidate would succeed at grasping it.
As predicted by entrance polls, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the South Carolina Democratic primary tonight [Saturday, February 27] in a very significant shift in the Democratic race.
This now marks Clinton’s third victory in the first four primaries of this race, giving solid insight into the direction of the future.
It also now leaves many posing the question of whether or not Senator Bernie Sanders should call it quits. While the results thus far haven’t shown a pending Sanders nomination, credit must still go to Sanders’ team on pushing forward to show he can still take on Clinton.
South Carolina is a state that represents many more Southern states, with a similar racial makeup and ideologies that await both Clinton and Bernie Sanders in coming weeks. There’s no question both candidates are examining what’s worked and what hasn’t, especially when it concerns the minority vote.
Early exit polls revealed 60 percent of voters today identified as Black, while 70 percent said they wanted a candidate who would continue President Obama’s policies.
What a Clinton victory means is her popularity among Black voters, though it has tapered, is still very much strong, grasping a staggering 84 percent of the total Black vote (an astounding number of 96 percent with Black voters over 65 years old in the state).
What a Sanders loss here shows is while his efforts to take Southern states are well warranted, his failure to catch more then 20 percent of the Black vote means a renewed focus on Northern states with a predominantly white electorate should remain in the spotlight of his strategies.
