COLUMBIA, S.C. _ Joe Biden emerged victorious from South Carolina's frenzied Democratic presidential primary, notching a decisive win that could reignite his struggling campaign and open a potential path to the Democratic nomination.
Candidates threw elbows, saturated the airwaves and spent with abandon here. They campaigned until they were hoarse, rallying voters and making promises until the last minute.
They worked furiously to mine support from black voters, the majority of those casting ballots here, before the all-important Super Tuesday contests on March 3, when California and 13 other states will weigh in. But Biden's win was strong enough that the Associated Press called the election for him the moment polls closed.
The still-crowded field of candidates could narrow after Super Tuesday, turning South Carolina into a crucial contest for almost everyone except front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is not on the ballot here.
"You in South Carolina have a decision to make," a raspy-voiced Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said in a final election day rally, where she pleaded with voters to let her take on President Donald Trump and jabbed at more moderate Democrats in the race. "In the face of this much danger, in the face of the kind of threats that occur every day, are we going to be a people who crouch down, who get timid? Or are we going to be a people who fight back?"
But former Vice President Biden, a centrist, arguably had the most on the line. He needed to more than squeak out a win_he needed to win big to lure back voters from other candidates running as pragmatists who have outperformed him in earlier states.
Biden's long-touted "firewall" in South Carolina appeared in danger of collapse after he suffered tough defeats in the first three contests _ Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. But a turnaround appeared possible when the state's moderates grew anxious that Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, might capture the nomination, and looked to Biden as a less risky choice.
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and other moderates who had competed with Biden for those votes failed to match his inroads with blacks, who make up more than 60% of Democratic voters here.
Those voters were poised to send a clear message to the rest of America: They would not be swayed by the verdict of overwhelmingly white Iowa and New Hampshire, or even of more diverse Nevada, states that boosted Sanders and knocked Biden on his heels.
But South Carolina's primary is the first true test of the candidates' strength among black voters _ which Biden argues is the key to retaking the White House.
"With the Biden movement, it may have started off slow like it's going nowhere, but it's getting higher ... ," said Brooks Harrison, 68, a preacher and the owner of East Side Soul Food in Charleston, who said he voted for Biden first thing in the morning. "And higher."
With South Carolina, he said, "now we're getting down to the nitty gritty."
Biden's campaign clearly got a shot of adrenaline after he was endorsed by the state's most influential Democrat, Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House. Exit polls suggested the Clyburn nod had a big effect on voters. Biden also reassured voters when he was seen to have performed well in a fractious candidates' debate on Wednesday.
The fluidity of the race here reflected the deep state of anxiety in the Democratic nomination battle nationwide.
Exit polls showed that many voters were undecided until the moment they went to the polls. The huge lead Biden enjoyed when he entered the race last year dropped precipitously over the months, as voters worried about his tendency to talk aimlessly and at times inartfully on the debate stage and on the stump, and grew skeptical that he could take on Trump.
"I'm still up in (the air)," said Charles Garcia, who voted Saturday for Sanders at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, where voters wound their way into a gym to cast ballots. "I'm just not really sure who's going to be able to do what they say they're going to do."
At the polling station at Marshall Elementary School in Orangeburg, Larry Preston, 42, shook his head no when asked if any of the Democrats can win the White House.
"I told my wife that if they couldn't get Trump out with impeachment, we're probably stuck with him for another term," said Preston, who voted for Steyer.
Biden hopes to gain enough momentum here to edge out other moderates on Super Tuesday, when other large, diverse and delegate rich states _ including Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Texas _ are up for grabs. That would, in theory, leave him and Bloomberg fighting for the moderate votes against Sanders.
Bloomberg, who did not enter the race until late November, will first appear on ballots Tuesday. Bloomberg's unprecedented spending _ he has poured more than a half billion dollars into his bid already _ confronts Biden and other moderates with a formidable threat. But his first debate was widely seen as a disaster, and his second only adequate, lowering his chances.
The battle between Biden and Bloomberg could widen the opening for Sanders, whose dominance among progressives positions him for an intimidating Super Tuesday delegate haul. With his huge war chest and sturdy infrastructure throughout Super Tuesday states, Sanders heads into Tuesday's contests better positioned than anyone else.
The Vermonter is dominating in California _ the crown jewel of Super Tuesday � where a University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times found him ahead of his nearest rival by 2 to 1, positioning him to vacuum up the lion's share of the state's delegates.
Sanders is also worrying rivals in other big states. He drew what his campaign estimated was more than 13,000 people to the Boston Common on Saturday afternoon, and polls show him running neck-and-neck with Warren in her home state. Polls showed Sanders also overtaking Biden in delegate-rich Texas.
The prospect that Democrats will arrive at their nominating convention in Milwaukee this summer with Sanders holding the largest number of delegates _ but not the majority needed to clench the nomination _ continues to grow.
It would invite a contentious floor fight in which Democratic centrists could try to consolidate behind a consensus choice, and hundreds of party leaders who are designated "super delegates" could ultimately decide the outcome.
The possibility of such a messy outcome has stepped up pressure on Buttigieg and Klobuchar to exit the race. Klobuchar's hopes were so dim in South Carolina that she barely campaigned here, focusing on Super Tuesday states. And Buttigieg's confident predictions of black support did not materialize.
Both candidates face stiff headwinds on Super Tuesday. But the muddled field could encourage them to stay in the race since any delegates they gather could position them to play an influential role in a brokered convention _ or even emerge as a compromise choice.
Steyer also is under pressure to give up. He failed to win a single delegate in Nevada. And in South Carolina, where he spent more time than any other candidate and his spending eclipsed that of rivals, polls showed him trailing far behind Biden and Sanders as election day approached.
