The South Carolina primary is testing black voters' support for Biden

US President Joe Biden's re-election bid reaches voters for the first time on Saturday as Democrats hold their opening 2024 primary in South Carolina.

Biden (81 years old), who is unpopular and faces little competition for his party's nomination in the run-up to the US elections scheduled for November 5, hopes to achieve a landslide victory with black voters in South Carolina to dispel doubts and fears about his age. About rising consumer and security costs along the US-Mexico border.

Democratic officials interviewed by Reuters expect between 100,000 and 200,000 votes in the primary elections after touring each county separately in the state, aiming to excite voters with various events that include Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris said on Friday in Orangeburg, South Carolina: “Who matters in the White House, and in this election each of us faces a question: What kind of country do we want to live in?” upon you.”

Former President Donald Trump (77 years old) is considered the most likely candidate to obtain the Republican Party nomination to compete with Biden in the general elections.

South Carolina has not supported any Democrat for president in the general election since 1976. But with blacks making up more than half of Democratic voters in this state, this will be an important test of Biden's appeal with a voter base that supports Democrats by a margin of nine votes. To one in presidential races.

Results are expected after 7pm (9pm Brasilia time).

Some voters in South Carolina said Biden's re-election bid left something to be desired. “Sometimes I wonder if his presence is enough because you don't see him that much, you don't hear him that much,” Martin Orr, 52, a school principal from McConnells, South Carolina, said of Biden, whom he plans to support. . “Is he quiet because of his age, or because of his physical condition, or what's going on? I think that's what a lot of people are concerned about right now.”

Echoes of 2020

Although he still has dozens of primaries to go, Biden has already entered general election mode, attacking Trump in a series of speeches. Trump has a great opportunity to be his party's nominee after winning the states of Iowa and New Hampshire, which are the first two contests in the electoral battle between states individually. South Carolina will host the next big battle for the Republican presidential nomination on February 24.

Biden made an amendment to the Democratic calendar and placed South Carolina as the best competition, ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire, in a move that increased the voice of black voters and practically ruled out any potential competition for the nomination.

The dominant victory in South Carolina's primary salvaged Biden's failed and unsuccessful four-year campaign, propelling him to an eventual general election victory against Trump.

“Black voters came out in droves and voted for Joe Biden,” said Kirk Randazzo, chair of the political science department at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. “There is less enthusiasm for him and his policies among minority voters, especially black men. It is not clear whether they will vote or stay home.”

In 2020, Biden received 49% of the 539,263 votes cast in the seven-person Democratic primary race in South Carolina. State Democrats are hoping he will win a larger share of voters this time, against U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips and best-selling self-help author Marianne Williamson.

In New Hampshire, where Biden's name was not on the ballot last month, he won 64% of the vote in the primary thanks to a write-in campaign.

In a recent speech to state Democrats, Phillips said he expects 95% of the state to go for Biden in the primary. But Phillips said he still has a role to play. “If you want to have the first primary in the country, you need at least two candidates on the ballot, and I'm happy to be that other guy,” Phillips said.