By Adam Shaw, Paul Steinhauser | Fox News
Polls will close soon in Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic presidential primary — a race which is a must-win for former Vice President Joe Biden’s struggling campaign, which is hoping the state will act as a firewall against surging front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Sanders has racked up a quick series of wins in the first presidential contests, essentially tying the Iowa caucuses with former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, before winning in New Hampshire and Nevada. It has led to speculation that the democratic socialist could soon run away with the nomination if he scores big in the Super Tuesday states next week.
Polls close at 7 p.m. ET in the Palmetto State.
BIDEN FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL IN SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY, SANDERS LOOKS TO EXTEND WINNING STREAK
Biden, who has sought to present himself as the moderate best positioned to beat Trump in November, is hoping that he can get back on the board in southern states with higher numbers of black voters with whom he performs well. Iowa and New Hampshire are both whiter states than the U.S. as a whole, while Nevada showed Sanders’ strength with Hispanic voters.
The former vice president told reporters on Saturday morning that he’s “optimistic not just about today” but about “the whole process from here on out.”
And Biden predicted that “the bigger the win” in South Carolina, “the bigger the bump” he’ll get going into the 14 Super Tuesday states that hold contests in three days.
Biden predicted that a strong win in South Carolina will “put me in a position to do well in North Carolina and Alabama and other states that I think in the Democratic primary I can do very well.”
“I don’t think it’ll even be over after Super Tuesday. I think it’s so it can go on to states that are ones I feel very good about,” he emphasized.
Polls have suggested Biden should win the contest, but some of those polls have shown a narrower lead and led Sanders supporters to hope that he could snatch it. Even a second place, but a strong performance among black voters, could cement Sanders’ status as front-runner for the nomination.
CAN SOUTH CAROLINA RESURRECT JOE BIDEN’S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN?
The Sanders surge has scared party moderates, who fear that the far-left candidate could hand Trump the presidency as well as Republican control of the House and Senate. Sanders has sought to push back on the narrative that he is unelectable, pointing to polls that he says show him beating Trump in November.
“Take a look at the last 60 national polls that have been done,” Sanders told a crowd in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday. “Bernie beats Trump 56 out of the 60 times. Take a look at some of the polls in the battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan — Bernie beats Trump.”
Other candidates, such as Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., are looking ahead to Super Tuesday already and keeping expectations low for Saturday — with a Buttigieg campaign aide telling Fox News that they’re looking for a fourth- or fifth-place finish. But billionaire Tom Steyer is hoping for a strong showing in South Carolina, with polls placing him in third place behind Biden and Sanders.
Steyer told Fox News on Friday how he viewed his chances.
“We have a very good team here. I’ve spent a lot of time on the ground and I’m talking straightforwardly about issues,” he said. “This is a heavily African-American state. I talk very straightforwardly about race. I’m the only person talking about reparations for slavery. I think I’ve been here the most and looked most people in the eye and talked most straightforwardly and I think that’s why.”
Biden, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of the primary in a message to supporters at a rally in Spartanburg.
“This state lifted Barack Obama to the presidency,” Biden said. “And now once again this state holds in its hands, literally, especially the state’s African American community, the power to determine… who the next nominee of the Democratic Party’s going to be”
“You hold in your hand the future of the Democratic Party,” he added. Adam Shaw is a reporter covering U.S. and European politics for Fox News.
