Joe Biden’s lead over Bernie Sanders in South Carolina drops to 5 points

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders is just 5 percentage points in South Carolina, as senior Democrats raised concerns about the dangers of having a self-described democratic socialist at the top of the ticket. 

Biden was leading Sanders by 28 to 23 in a new CBS / YouGov poll released Sunday, a day after Sanders trounced rivals in the Nevada caucuses. 

It was unclear whether Sanders’ run of successes in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada would continue to give him a lift, in a state where Biden has campaigned heavily and has strong support among the state’s African American voters.  

‘I think we’re gonna do well, and I think we’re going to go on to Super Tuesday and do very well,’ former Vice President Joe Biden said of his chances in South Carolina. Here Biden addresses the crowd during a South Carolina campaign launch party on February 11, 2020 in Columbia

Biden told supporters in Las Vegas Saturday night: ‘We’re alive and we’re coming back and we’re going to win.’

He added: ‘I think we’re in a position now to move on in a way that we haven’t been until this moment. I think we’re going to go, we’re going to win in South Carolina, and then Super Tuesday and we are on our way.’

‘I ain’t a socialist. I ain’t a plutocrat. I’m a Democrat,’ Biden said. 

Democratic Rep. James C. Clyburn of South Carolina, a powerbroker in the state, told ABC’s ‘This Week’ Sanders’ could pose a ‘real burden for us.’

Clyburn, the House Majority Whip, said voters were ‘pretty leery about that title socialist.’

Biden came in second to Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses Saturday

Biden came in second to Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses Saturday 

Democratic Rep. James C. Clyburn of South Carolina, a powerbroker in the state, told ABC's 'This Week' Sanders' could pose a 'real burden for us'

Democratic Rep. James C. Clyburn of South Carolina, a powerbroker in the state, told ABC’s ‘This Week’ Sanders’ could pose a ‘real burden for us’

He added: ‘It’s going to be tough to hold onto these jobs if you have to make the case for accepting a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist.’ Biden was set to visit a black church in Charleston on Sunday as he fires up his campaign in the final week. 

Biden resisted calling the state his own ‘firewall’ when asked about it on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’

‘You said it, my firewall,’ Biden told interviewer Margaret Brennan. 

‘I said I’m going to do well there. And I’ll do well there and I’ll do well-beyond there as well,’ Biden said.

‘I think we’re gonna do well, and I think we’re going to go on to Super Tuesday and do very well,’ he said, after scoring a second-place finish in Nevada behind Sanders. 

Sanders predicted in a Saturday nigh victory speech that his multi-racial coalition would ‘sweep this country.’ 

Biden had led Sanders by as much as 28 points in the poll this fall. Now, he plans to spend every day of the coming week in the state to campaign.

‘We have a long way to go here,’ former Democratic National Committee chair and past presidential candidate Howard Dean cautioned on CNN. 

Sanders held his victory rally in Texas, one of a group of states that hold voting on Super Tuesday, where he has the potential to solidify support among a divided field. 

Democrats meet on the debate stage again on Tuesday, this time in Charleston. 

Steyer, a hedge funder and philanthropist, continues to be a factor in South Carolina, where he has spent heavily, despite failing to break through in Nevada despite a similar ad blitz. He got no delegates and about 4 per cent of the vote.

‘I think I have done best with black people. I have done best with Latinos. I think that when we get to the diverse Democratic electorate, when we get to the diversity that is America and the Democratic Party, I do a lot better,’ Steyer told ‘Fox News Sunday.’ 

‘So South Carolina happens to be a place that has a pretty high concentration of African-Americans. And those happen to be people that I talk to a lot and have a lot of – have a long history of working with,’ he said. 

 

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