Biden returns to South Carolina to bolster support with Black voters

U.S. President Joe Biden greets a patron during an unannounced visit to Regal Lounge barber shop in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S., January 27, 2024. (REUTERS)

COLUMBIA, South Carolina  – U.S. President Joe Biden visited South Carolina on Saturday for a dinner to celebrate elevating the state and its large base of Black voters to first place in the Democratic Party’s calendar of contests to nominate a candidate for the November election.

Biden, setting up for a likely rematch of the 2020 contest against Donald Trump, will make the case that the Republican former president is a threat to communities of color.

The president is set to headline the South Carolina Democratic Party’s dinner to mark the first official primary next month.

He will explain why he replaced the less diverse states of Iowa and New Hampshire from the top of the party’s nominating calendar and offer a glimpse on how he plans to attack Trump on his record with Black Americans, a campaign official said.

“President Biden has long believed that our nominating process should reflect our party’s rich diversity, and he’s following through on that commitment and on his commitment to Black voters, the backbone of the Democratic Party,” said Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks.

On his way to the dinner, Biden and U.S. Representative James Clyburn, whose endorsement in 2020 catapulted him to the White House, stopped at the Regal Lounge barber shop in downtown Columbia, where they shook hands and took selfies with the largely Black patrons.

The Democratic primary in South Carolina is on Feb. 3 and Biden is expected to win handily as he carves an easy path to the party’s nomination.

The president has been getting mixed reviews from some Black voters who backed him in 2020, including discontent over his failure to deliver on voting rights legislation and other issues. Although Democrats have no hope of winning the state in November, Biden hopes the focus on South Carolina will help bolster support among Black voters.

Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, said Biden has been “losing badly with Americans of all backgrounds because they had to live through hid disastrous presidency.”

The dinner marks the end of a busy week for the Biden campaign. Surrogates like California Governor Gavin Newsom and Marcia Fudge, head of the agency that oversees federal housing, crisscrossed the state to mobilize voters for the primary.

On Friday, First Lady Jill Biden headlined an event in West Columbia featuring teachers from the influential National Education Association (NEA), among the largest labor unions in the country.

NEA president Rebecca Pringle said contrast between the president and Trump could not be starker.

“We need to listen to what Trump says because he already has told us what he’s focused on, and it is not on students or the people who have dedicated their lives to educating them,” Pringle said.

The first lady reminded attendees that South Carolina catapulted her husband to the White House in 2020 by giving him a big win in the primary that forced his rivals out of the race.