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Joan E Greve in Columbia

Joe Biden wins South Carolina primary for vital boost ahead of Super Tuesday – as it happened

Joe Biden at his victory rally in Columbia, South Carolina. He said: ‘The days of Donald Trump’s divisiveness will soon be over.’
Joe Biden at his victory rally in Columbia, South Carolina. He said: ‘The days of Donald Trump’s divisiveness will soon be over.’ Photograph: Jim Urquhart/Reuters

Here’s tonight’s news story on Joe Biden’s big win in South Carolina:

South Carolina primary summary

That’s it from me in Columbia, South Carolina. Here’s how tonight’s primary shook out:

  • Joe Biden got a much-needed shot in the arm. According to the results as of 11 pm ET, the former vice president defeated Bernie Sanders by about 29 points. Biden needed a decisive win here after dismal performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the question now is whether the victory will translate into momentum for Super Tuesday. Biden will need to consolidate the moderate vote quickly if he wants to block Sanders’ path to the nomination, and his landslide win could attract voters who were concerned about his ability to defeat Trump after Iowa and New Hampshire.
  • The Democratic race is more muddled than ever going into Super Tuesday. The four early voting states delivered delegate wins to Sanders, Biden and Pete Buttigieg, and seven candidates remain in the race. Adding to the confusion, Mike Bloomberg will be on the ballot starting Tuesday. But the race could quickly narrow depending on how the 14 Super Tuesday states vote.
  • Paging Bloomberg: Tom Steyer’s $200 million gamble flamed out. Steyer had staked his presidential campaign on a strong performance in South Carolina, and the billionaire activist dropped out when it became clear that had not materialized, despite spending nearly $200 million on advertising nationally. Bloomberg has spent more than half a billion dollars since entering the race in November, and his first test will come on Tuedsay. But Steyer’s withdrawal does not necessarily foretell success, although Bloombeg is better known and spending much more.
  • The results of Nevada and South Carolina intensify concerns about Iowa and New Hampshire voting first. The mostly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire, which voted first and second in the Democratic primary, both showed Sanders and Buttigieg in a close fight for the top spot. But then came Nevada and South Carolina, which gave decisive victories to Sanders and Biden. The sharp contrast in results has added to mounting concerns about letting two mostly white states vote first as the Democratic party becomes increasingly diverse.
  • Is this the end of caucuses? The Iowa caucuses were a complete debacle, as officials took days to report results. Nevada’s caucuses were not as disastrous, although it still took hours for results to slowly trickle in. New Hampshire and South Carolina, two primary states, were able to quickly report statewide results. The glaring discrepancy will certainly spark some calls to end the caucus system in the small handful of states still using it.

Thanks for following along with our coverage of the South Carolina primary and tune back in for our regular US politics live blog on Monday.

There will be considerable debate over the next few days about what Joe Biden’s victory means for his path to the nomination, but one thing is obvious: the Democratic race is more muddled than ever.

That’s ... interesting. Republican senator Lindsey Graham congratulated Joe Biden after the former vice president secured a decisive victory in Graham’s home state of South Carolina.

Biden and Graham worked together in the Senate, but the pair sparred publicly when Graham echoed the president’s baseless corruption allegations against Biden and his son, Hunter.

“I don’t know what happened” to Graham, Biden told “The View” earlier this month.

Bernie Sanders thanked Tom Steyer for his presidential campaign after the billionaire activist announced he would drop out of the race.

Steyer said he did not see a path to victory after his disappointing third-place finish in South Carolina, but he pledged to continue working on issues that mattered to him like racial justice and climate change.

Political reporters weigh in on tonight’s results: there’s no question that Joe Biden’s decisive victory in South Carolina has given his campaign a much-needed shot in the arm.

But the question now is whether that victory will translate to momentum for Super Tuesday, when 14 states will vote:

A New York Times reporter noted Biden’s victory was partly attributable to the rise of moderate candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, who failed to attract the support of voters of color:

And here’s what to keep an eye on as the nominating contest moves into March:

Biden surpasses Sanders in popular vote

Joe Biden appears to have surpassed Bernie Sanders in the primary-wide popular vote thanks to his large victory in South Carolina.

However, Sanders may still lead in pledged delegates, the metric used to determine the party’s nominee, by the end of the night:

Tom Steyer may have dropped out of the presidential race, but it should be noted the video from his South Carolina rally last night, in which he danced alongside the rapper Juvenile, will live on forever.

Steyer drops out after disappointing South Carolina performance

Tom Steyer has appeared at his primary night party in Columbia to announce he is dropping out of the presidential race.

“We were disappointed with where we came out,” Steyer said, saying he may have won a couple delegates from South Carolina’s congressional districts. “I said if I didn’t see a path to winning, then I’d suspend my campaign. And honestly, I can’t see a path where I can win the presidency.”

Steyer promised to continue working on the issues that animated his campaign, specifically racial justice and climate change.

The billionaire activist launched his campaign in July but failed to break through with better-known candidates like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in the race.

Steyer had staked his campaign on South Carolina, where he held more events than any other candidate.

But his disappointing third-place finish here left him with no path to the nomination.

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer is reportedly dropping out of the presidential race after a disappointing finish in the South Carolina primary.

Steyer will appear here at his primary night party in Columbia momentarily.

While addressing supporters at his victory party in Columbia, Joe Biden appeared to suffer a slip of the tongue when he briefly identified a Senate candidate as the next president.

“Now we need to stand behind Jaime Harrison, the next president of the United — next senator,” Biden said of Harrison, who is running to oust Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

Aside from the verbal hiccup, Biden’s mention of down-ballot candidates like Harrison and freshman congressman Joe Cunningham appeared quite strategic.

Some establishment Democrats have expressed fear that the party could lose the House if Bernie Sanders is nominated.

Biden’s mentions of Harrison and Cunningham, combined with his promises to keep Nancy Pelosi as House speaker and flip the Republican-controlled Senate, were clearly meant to send a message that he would lead the party to widespread victory if nominated.

Joe Biden focused his victory speech on electability, once again claiming that he is the candidate who will defeat Trump.

“We have the option of winning big or losing big,” Biden said. “We need real changes, right now. Something I’ve done my whole career, and I’ll do as president.

“We have to beat Donald Trump and the Republican Party,” Biden said. “The days of Donald Trump’s divisiveness will soon be over.”

Updated

Biden: 'This campaign is taking off'

Joe Biden took a victory lap at his primary night party in Columbia, South Carolina, pointing to his win here as evidence of a comeback in the nominating contest.

“This campaign is taking off,” Biden told a cheering crowd of hundreds.

The former vice president made a point to directly address voters in the 14 states that will vote on Super Tuesday.

“We need you, we want you, there’s a place for you in this campaign,” Biden said. “If Democrats nominate me, I believe we can beat Donald Trump.”

Updated

Updated

Congressman Jim Clyburn spoke at Joe Biden’s victory party after the influental lawmaker helped deliver a victory in South Carolina for the former vice president.

Clyburn recalled his days teaching history to underscore the importance of this election.

“We study history in order to understand the present. And to prepare for the future,” Clyburn said. “Because anything that’s happened before, can happen again.”

The South Carolina congressman then made a direct pitch for Biden’s candidacy. “This campaign, this year is about the goodness of America,” Clyburn said. “And we have as our candidate, a real good man.”

Someone else who’s not having a good night: Elizabeth Warren. As initial South Carolina results showed Warren in fifth place, the Massachusetts senator was disrupted by a protester while addressing supporters in Houston.

Addressing the crowd, Warren, who has so far failed to win a single contest in the presidential primary, acknowledged the early states have not gone as she had hoped.

But Warren showed no sign of dropping out, saying she looks forward to Super Tuesday. “My campaign is built for the long haul, and we are looking forward to these big contests,” Warren told the crowd.

Sanders congratulates Biden on South Carolina victory

Bernie Sanders congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the South Carolina primary while addressing supporters in Virginia Beach.

“You cannot win ‘em all,” Sanders said. “A lot of states out there, and tonight we did not win in South Carolina.”

The Vermont senator also appeared to be bracing his supporters for a long fight ahead.

“That will not be the only defeat,” Sanders said. “There are a lot of states in this country. Nobody wins them all.”

Mike Bloomberg’s campaign has made clear the billionaire candidate will not drop out after Joe Biden’s seemingly decisive victory in the South Carolina primary.

“Mike Bloomberg has not been on the ballot yet,” campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a new statement. “Mike is the only candidate to campaign in all fourteen Super Tuesday states over the last two months and we look forward to Tuesday.”

Bloomberg skipped the four early voting states to focus on the larger Super Tuesday states, such as California and Texas, but Biden’s win tonight may tarnish the former New York mayor’s argument that he’s the candidate best suited to defeat Trump.

We’re still waiting for Biden to deliver his victory speech here at the University of South Carolina’s volleyball center.

Supporters of Joe Biden cheer after he won the South Carolina primary.
Supporters of Joe Biden cheer after he won the South Carolina primary. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

There’s an air of genuine surprise here about his expected margin of victory. It’s important to remember that Biden was not expected to win here by a convincing margin until a few days ago.

As I drove to Columbia from Charleston earlier today, speaking to voters at a few polling stations along the way, it was interesting to hear just how much congressman Jim Clyburn’s endorsement did for Biden among the people I spoke to - many of whom had been considering both Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren before Wednesday.

Although Biden appears to have done incredibly well among African American voters, the crowd here, which continues to swell, is pretty diverse. I’ve watched a number of Biden staffers embrace as the results keep rolling in and it becomes clear that Biden is going to score not just a decisive victory, but also the lion’s share of the delegates in play here.

Joe Biden’s team said his fundraising numbers have spiked since the South Carolina primary was called.

According to the former vice president’s director of online fundraising, the campaign saw its best hour of donations after Biden was declared the winner in South Carolina.

Bernie Sanders does not appear to have improved his standing much with South Carolina’s African American voters since 2016, when the Vermont senator lost the state’s primary to Hillary Clinton by more than 47 points.

Sanders is very popular with other segments of the Democratic Party, including Latinx voters, but his poor numbers with African Americans could drag down his delegate haul on Super Tuesday.

Despite the pundit pressure to drop out of the race, Mike Bloomberg is showing no signs of withdrawing after Joe Biden’s seemingly decisive victory in South Carolina.

Tom Steyer has not made an appearance at his primary night party yet, as early results indicate a poor showing in South Carolina for the billionaire activist.

Steyer had rested all his presidential ambitions on a strong performance in South Carolina, visiting the state more than any other candidate. (His wife even moved to the Palmetto State recently.)

But elections experts are currently predicting Steyer may not have picked up a single delegate tonight, leaving the long-shot candidate with no path to the nomination.

Some pundits are already calling on Mike Bloomberg to drop out of the race in the hope of Joe Biden consolidating the support of more moderate Democrats.

Bloomberg has already spent more than $500 million campaigning in Super Tuesday states like California and Texas.

But the former New York mayor’s standing in the race may be slipping after a terrible first debate performance.

More importantly, Biden’s seemingly decisive victory in South Carolina may win over some moderate Democrats who questioned the former vice president’s electability after his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.

It has been a tough hour for Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

On top of Joe Biden’s immediate victory in the South Carolina primary, the former vice president has picked up another Super Tuesday endorsement.

As expected, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe has endorsed Biden. “We can’t afford four more years of Donald Trump’s hate-driven chaos and Joe Biden is the candidate with the character, experience, and broad appeal to defeat him,” McAuliffe said in a statement released by the Biden campaign.

And a top newspaper in Minnesota, another Super Tuesday state where Sanders has been competitive, has just endorsed home-state senator Amy Klobuchar.

“Klobuchar is the candidate we know best and trust the most,” the Star Tribune’s editorial board wrote. “Most Minnesotans recognize that she has been there on the issues that matter to them — not just when it’s politically expedient, but day after day, year after year.”

Trump’s campaign has released a statement criticizing the entire Democratic presidential field, in response to Joe Biden’s victory in the South Carolina primary.

“Once again, President Trump is the clear winner because not one of these candidates has a chance at beating him in November,” campaign manager Brad Parscale said in the statement.

“We don’t know who the eventual nominee will be, but they are all the same, and their radical big government socialist policies will be on the Democrat ballot in November no matter what,” Parscale said, clearly trying to equate Biden with democratic socialist Bernie Sanders.

Joe Biden has won the crucial South Carolina primary, according to early results projections, in a victory that could rejuvenate the former vice president’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination after poor early results earlier in the month.

The Biden campaign has long viewed South Carolina, the first state where African American voters will hold a significant sway in the result, as a way to boost his presidential run after poor early results. Anything less than a convincing victory could have spelled the beginning of the end for Biden.

At an election night party in the state capital of Columbia, a crowd that filled the bleachers and playing court of a university volleyball court roared as the result was announced on TV news as the polls closed.

Trump predicts end of Bloomberg's campaign

Trump has weighed in on Joe Biden’s win in South Carolina, predicting the former vice president’s victory will spell the end of Mike Bloomberg’s campaign.

Bloomberg and Biden have both sought the votes of the more moderate members of the Democratic Party, and it previously appeared Bloomberg had picked off much of Biden’s support.

However, after a terrible first debate performance, Bloomberg’s numbers slipped, and Biden’s victory tonight may encourage some of his former supporters to return to the fold before Super Tuesday.

Joe Biden has won his first presidential primary after two previous runs for the White House, the first of which was in 1988.

So it could be said that the former vice president has been waiting for this night for 32 years.

The real question is whether Biden’s success tonight will translate into more wins on Super Tuesday, when more than 1,300 delegates are up for grabs.

The answer to that question will likely depend on how much Biden can run up the score tonight, which will become clearer as more results roll in.

Joe Biden is likely looking at a massive margin tonight, considering the race was called right as polls closed.

This is the first race of the election cycle that has been called as soon as the vote was over. For comparison, New Hampshire, the only other primary so far, took hours to call because of Bernie Sanders’ narrow margin over Pete Buttigieg.

Biden needed a decisive victory tonight to reinvigorate his campaign before heading into Super Tuesday, and it appears he got it.

The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland is at Joe Biden’s party -- now a victory party -- in Columbia, South Carolina.

A massive cheer went up as CNN called the race for the former vice president, and audience members waved American flags as they awaited Biden’s arrival.

Biden wins South Carolina primary, AP projects

Well, that was quick. The polls closed moments ago, but AP has projected that Joe Biden has won the South Carolina primary.

South Carolina polls close

It is 7 pm ET, so the polls in South Carolina have officially closed, and we will soon start getting results from the last of the four early voting states in the Democratic presidential primary.

Jim Clyburn may have endorsed Joe Biden’s candidacy, but the influential South Carolina congressman also has some notes for the former vice president.

Clyburn told CNN that, if Biden wins the South Carolina primary tonight, “we will have to sit down and get serious about how we retool this campaign.”

The House majority whip added that “many of us around the country will be able to join with him and help him get it right” if Biden wins.

Considering Biden’s dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, he will need a signficant and rapid reversal of fortunes if he wants to contest frontrunner Bernie Sanders for the nomination.

Here’s some more good news for Joe Biden from South Carolina exit polls: the state’s primary voters are showing a desire to return to a pre-Trump era of politics.

According to an AP Votecast poll, about 4 in 10 South Carolina voters say they want to return to the politics of the past.

In comparison, about two-thirds of voters in Iowa and New Hamoshire, where Biden saw dismal performances, said they wanted a candidate who would bring fundamental change to Washington.

Biden has based his campaign on a promise that he would restore normalcy to the White House, while progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have promised to enact radical change through policies like Medicare-for-all and student loan forgiveness.

If a higher share of South Carolina’s voters are feeling nostalgic for the days of Barack Obama, it could bode well for Biden’s showing tonight.

I‘m at Joe Biden’s election night party at the University of South Carolina Volleyball Center in Columbia.

The press pen, which stretches across half the arena, is already completely packed, and the event isn’t set to start for another half an hour. A diverse crowd of what seems like a few hundred people snakes for about half a block outside, and Biden’s “Soul of the Nation” campaign bus sits on the roadside catching the sunset.

The sound system is being checked at the moment, with a few songs indicating how confident the campaign is of a victory tonight. The disco anthem “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead and “Celebrate!” by Kool & The Gang have both been played.

Biden’s campaign have erected a podium in the middle of the court, indicating he’ll be speaking in the round when he comes out after results start coming in around 7pm ET.

Here at Tom Steyer’s primary night party in Columbia, South Carolina, supporters of the billionaire activist are starting to trickle in.

Polls close in about 20 minutes, so Steyer will soon know whether or not his decision to focus his early campaigning efforts on South Carolina has paid off.

If it hasn’t, the bar at his primary night party will likely come in handy for his team.

Coming off his landslide victory in Nevada, Bernie Sanders’ team had recently appeared confident he would do well in South Carolina.

“We are closing that gap every day,” Sanders said of Joe Biden’s polling advantage on Thursday. “If we can close that gap here, I think we will do well on Super Tuesday, and then win the Democratic nomination.”

But the Vermont senator has not mentioned the primary today as he campaigns in Super Tuesday states, indicating he may be bracing for a loss.

Tom Steyer has based all his presidential hopes on South Carolina, and he needs to do well tonight to stay in the race.

Steyer has been campaigning across the state for months and picking up endorsements from a number of local leaders. His wife even moved here recently.

The billionaire activist even went viral yesterday with some questionable dance moves alongside the rapper Juvenile at a rally in Columbia:

But polls have shown Steyer trailing Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, so depending on the results, tonight could mark the end of his long-shot campaign.

Joe Biden could be in for a good night thanks to the endorsement of South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn.

Clyburn, the longest-serving member of South Carolina’s congressional delegation and the highest-ranking African-American in the House, has incredible clout in the state.

Clyburn endorsed Biden on Wednesday, and that late-stage support may be critical tonight.

Joe Biden could take the delegate lead in the Democratic primary tonight, depending on the size of his potential victory in South Carolina.

The Palmetto State is the most delegate-rich of the four early voting states. For perspective, Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada have awarded a collective 101 delegates, and 54 delegates are up for grabs in South Carolina tonight.

If Biden wins by more than 20 points in a high-turnout primary, he could take the lead over Bernie Sanders in pledged delegates and potentially the popular vote.

But Sanders has built a 30-delegate lead over Biden, so the former vice president would need a landslide to pull ahead of the frontrunner.

Biden looks for first primary victory in South Carolina

Greetings from Columbia, South Carolina!

Voters in this state have been going to the polls all day to decide which Democratic presidential candidate should face off against Donald Trump in November.

Joe Biden talks with supporters at Wofford University in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Joe Biden talks with supporters at Wofford University in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Photograph: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Joe Biden is the heavy favorite to win tonight, with the RealClearPolitics polling average showing him leading second-place Bernie Sanders by more than 15 points. The former vice president has benefitted from his popularity among African-American voters, who make up more than half of South Carolina’s primary electorate.

Biden needs a victory tonight to reinvigorate his campaign after dismal performances in Iowa and New Hampshire and a distant second-place finish in Nevada.

Sanders, the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, is unlikely to win tonight, but he’s looking to mitigate Biden’s gains to avoid any questions about his electability before Super Tuesday, when more than 1,300 delegates will be up for grabs.

A wildcard tonight is Tom Steyer, the billionaire activist who has based the future of his campaign on South Carolina after finishing in the low single digits in the first three voting states. Recent polls have shown Steyer in third place behind Biden and Sanders, but he is hoping to slip into second place.

If Steyer can’t turn in a solid performance tonight, it could end his campaign. For the lower-polling candidates, a disappointing showing could spell trouble for Super Tuesday, when they will need to do well to stay in the race.

The polls will close in about an hour and a half at 7 pm ET, so stay tuned.

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