COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – At Hillary Clinton’s South Carolina headquarters, a young staffer readies a stack of pictures showing the former secretary of state with her old boss, President Barack Obama. Then the staffer bolts out the door.
His destination: African-American businesses across South Carolina’s largest city.
“If you don’t have tape, I’ll bring some to you,” Brandon Lewis offers to business owner Catherine Kelly, who has said she’ll hang the photo in her Columbia beauty shop.
“I’ve already got a picture of Obama,” Kelly tells him, expressing pride in the nation’s first black president. She assures him: “We’re with Hillary.”
Black voters represent a solid majority of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina – and could make all the difference in the state’s Feb. 27 primary. A new NBC News-Wall Street Journal-Marist poll shows Clinton with 64 percent of South Carolina’s likely Democratic votes, while her rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has 27 percent. Clinton leads in all demographics, but her 74-17 advantage among South Carolina’s black voters explains her overall 37-point margin.