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President Joe Biden captured the sort of landslide victory in South Carolina on Saturday typically reserved for socialist dictators running in rigged races. Yet while the incumbent Democrat attained a North Korea-esque winning percentage, the lack of participation from voters identifying with the Palmetto State’s perpetual minority party raised eyebrows.
First, the numbers: With 100 percent of counties reporting, Biden captured 126,321 ballots (or 96.22 percent of the Palmetto State’s self-identified Democrat vote). Self-help guru Marianne Williamson received 2,726 votes (2.08 percent) while Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips collected only 2,239 votes (1.71 percent). Only 131,276 South Carolinians – or 4.09 percent of the state’s 3.23 million registered voters – cast ballots in this election, which fell well shy of the Democratic turnout record (539,263) set four years ago and dramatically shy of the Democratic turnout percentage record (23 percent) set in 2008.
There are several reasons for the lack of voter participation in yesterday’s election …
First and foremost, this race was never competitive. Biden has nothing resembling viable opposition in the Democratic primary, although speculation abounds that Democratic leaders intend to replace him on the ticket later this year. Unless (until?) that happens, though, he remains the only game in town on the Democratic side of the ledger.
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Second, the inevitability of Biden’s South Carolina win has prompted many Palmetto State Democrats to try and play spoilers in the upcoming ‘First in the South’ Republican presidential primary – scheduled for three weeks from now (February 24, 2024). In that race, former U.S. president Donald Trump is poised to positively shellack former S.C. governor Nikki Haley in her own backyard – but many Democrats are backing Haley in the hopes of blunting Trump’s momentum.
Will their crossover campaign work? It’s doubtful, but …
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Third, Biden is just not very popular. Only 38.9 percent of voters across the country approve of the job he’s doing compared to 55.2 percent who disapprove. He’s also lost broad swaths of his own electorate as a result of his positioning vis-à-vis the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Despite these troubling undercurrents, Biden trumpeted his South Carolina win as though it were some sort of popular mandate that would propel him to a second term in the White House.
“In 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency,” Biden said in a statement heralding his win. “Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again — and making Donald Trump a loser — again.”
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The left-leaning mainstream media played along, too, touting Biden’s Palmetto State win as supplying him with a “dose of energy,” claiming it gave the president “what he wanted” while also setting him “on (a) path to renomination.”
That’s some serious spin for an election in which 96 percent of the state’s registered voters – including the overwhelming majority of Democratic voters – didn’t bother to show up. It’s especially dizzying when you consider Biden’s campaign “invested heavily in driving up turnout,” according to The Associated Press.
Four trips to the Palmetto State by vice president Kamala Harris also do not appear to have done much to mobilize the black vote in South Carolina, either.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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12 comments
Huh…I never knew North Korea had elections. I thought it was more like the SC GQP 2020 primary where the tinpot despot was just given a pass to the nomination.
This Weekend at Bernie’s sequel is wild! Biden’s already got the formaldehyde in him.
…and Biden will still cruise to an easy victory in November.
While Trump literally hoards “love letters” (Trump’s words…not mine) from the leader of North Korea.
MAGA dorks have zero self-awareness.
Move over Sleepy Joe napping to victory, now it’s Mummified Biden putting the ancient curse on the Trumpers.
You have to appreciate the level of hilarity these morons generate unintentionally.
I love to see the comments from people who obviously don’t have enough common sense to vote. Do you people not see what Biden has done to America? Biden as screwed everything from the Border, on day one, Afghanistan, worst military SNFU in American History, Ukraine, Biden and his Crime Family are so indebted to Ukraine that he spends Billions more on the protecting the Border of Ukraine than the UNITED STATES border, Energy Dependence, also a day one screw up, Iran, gave them the money to finance the Middle East attacks that are going on now, Student loan forgiveness, makes people who paid their student loans and those who couldn’t afford college pay for these “freeloaders” in order to buy votes, just like the open borders fiasco. How about no gas stoves or heating, all cars must be electric, with no clue how to charge them, or heat home without fossil fuels, and total lawlessness, the Nations Capital is like a 3rd world country. I can continue for 2 chapters but those things alone are enough for any logically thinking person to NEVER vote for Biden. At the top of this article you see a smiling Black Man with Biden, like he’s happy with him, Blacks have been hoodwinked by the Democratic Party for decades and they keep “drinking the Kool Aid”. Following the lead from James Clyburn, what a joke, these Black voters should ask Clyburn, Biden and the Democrats, What have you really done for Blacks. They say, we will end Black poverty, give them better education, better housing, etc., how’s that working out for Blacks. Biden/Clyburn is the same ole song, different verse! People speak of MAGA likes it’s bad, what’ bad about wanting us to be Energy independent, keeping the border closed, keeping our Military Strong, keeping Russia and China aware that they can’t do anything to America, because WE WILL strike back. So I say, if your are more worried about Men competing in Women’s sports, which bathroom Men are supposed to use, if you actually think a MAN can get pregnant, if you are WOKE and if you don’t realize that BLM was a crooked organization that began with a group of Black Militants ambushing and murdering several Police Officers in Dallas Texas, maybe should not vote at all! It takes people with an ounce of Common Sense to choose our leaders, not some people who believe in a political party who has been promising everything and delivering nothing but bigger government and more debt and more giveaways for years, then please stay at home, don’t vote in either primary, you obviously don’t have the aptitude to make an intelligent choice.
Time to put down the pipe.
Remember in 2019 when the GQP just cancelled primaries to help Trump…including right here in SC?
Of course not, because it would require the smallest iota of self-awareness or honesty. Two things that left the MAGA bloggers’ world years ago.
Why limit your description of lack of “ self-awareness or honesty” to “MAGA bloggers” alone when it infects the entire MAGA species?
If I remember correctly the SC GOP fully canceled the Republican primary in 2020 to protect their dear leader.
Remembering about Republican’s actions over the last decade is too painful and embarrassing…..if you are a human with a soul.
No problems there!!!!
Where’s a blog post about how republicans are super-triggered by Taylor Swift?
I bet drunkle is working on one now ;-)
Taylor Swift and the GOP have something in common.
Taylor Swift wrote an abum named Red, one of many award-winning albums in her career which is still bustling today.
Trump is in the red for hundreds of millions of dollars from various lawsuits and legal judgements – so far!
Huh, now that I think of it, that’s not very similar at all.