South Carolina is generally seen to matter to Dems as it’s a pretty decent cross section of the Democratic coalition as well as folks they need to woo in competitive states (Colorado, the midwest nowadays, Georgia, North Carolina etc.)
The idea wasn’t that Biden would carry South Carolina for the Dems but that a candidate who wins there has the demographic support crucial to the Democratic route to the presidency.
For Biden in particular, it was seen as proof that despite being whiter than the driven snow, he could still motivate Black voters (and honestly, that kind of worked out, Georgia was won in large part because Biden racked up absurd totals among Black voters in Clayton, Fulton and DeKalb) while still appealing to more moderate, working class white voters to win back the rust belt states Clinton lost in 2016.
We obviously don’t know how things would have gone with another candidate but the demographic success that Biden enjoyed in S.C was pretty much the success that kept trump out of office this term.
South Carolina is generally seen to matter to Dems as it’s a pretty decent cross section of the Democratic coalition as well as folks they need to woo in competitive states (Colorado, the midwest nowadays, Georgia, North Carolina etc.)
The idea wasn’t that Biden would carry South Carolina for the Dems but that a candidate who wins there has the demographic support crucial to the Democratic route to the presidency.
For Biden in particular, it was seen as proof that despite being whiter than the driven snow, he could still motivate Black voters (and honestly, that kind of worked out, Georgia was won in large part because Biden racked up absurd totals among Black voters in Clayton, Fulton and DeKalb) while still appealing to more moderate, working class white voters to win back the rust belt states Clinton lost in 2016.
We obviously don’t know how things would have gone with another candidate but the demographic success that Biden enjoyed in S.C was pretty much the success that kept trump out of office this term.