ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) – For Hillary Clinton, the South Carolina presidential primary is a chance to not just win, but win big.
After an up-and-down start to the 2016 presidential contests for Clinton, a sizable victory over Bernie Sanders on Saturday would be an emotional boost for her White House campaign and a chance to wipe away the fraught memories of her 2008 primary loss in the state.
It would also establish Clinton as the firm favorite among black voters, a crucial segment of the Democratic electorate, and set her up for a big delegate haul in next week’s Super Tuesday contests in the South.
“The South Carolina primary is personally important to me because I want to send a strong signal that South Carolina is ready for change, ready for progress, ready to make a difference,” Clinton said Friday during a rally in Columbia.
Sanders knows his prospects with South Carolina’s heavily black Democratic electorate are grim. A longtime lawmaker from Vermont, where just about 1 percent of the population is black, Sanders lacks Clinton’s deep and longstanding connections to the African-American community. He’s tried to broaden his economic inequality message and touch on issues such as incarceration rates and criminal justice reform, but he has still struggled to gain traction in South Carolina.