United States, Columbia: In Saturday’s Democratic primary in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton scored a resounding victory against Bernie Sanders, seizing momentum ahead of the most important day of the nomination race: next week’s Super Tuesday showdown. Four weeks into the White House primaries, the former secretary of state earned her first decisive win of the campaign, after a nail-biter victory in Iowa, a thumping loss to Sanders in New Hampshire, and then a five-point win in Nevada.
South Carolina was the first southern state to vote for a 2016 Democratic nominee, before the race broadens to 11 contests across the country. Clinton said to a loud roar as she thanked supporters in Columbia, “Tomorrow this campaign goes national”. South Carolina, where she emerged with a clearer path to the nomination. “We are going to compete for every vote in every state. We are not taking anything, and we are not taking anyone, for granted”. US networks called the race for Clinton immediately after polls closed in the Palmetto State, where the majority of Democratic voters are African-American, a voting bloc that she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have successfully courted for decades.
Clinton also looked beyond her battle with Sanders, tweaking the man many now see as the likely Republican nominee: Donald Trump, whose campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again”. “Despite what you hear, we don’t need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great,” she said, reading off a teleprompter. She added, “But we do need to make America whole again”, laying out an argument against the divisive rhetoric favoured by Trump, who has antagonised immigrants, Muslims and campaign rivals.
Clinton said, “I know it sometimes seems a little odd for someone running for president these days and in this time to say we need more love and kindness in America and But i am telling you from the bottom of my heart, we do”. With 99 per cent of precincts reporting, Clinton stood at 73.5pc compared to 26pc for Sanders.