Joe Biden handily won South Carolina’s Democratic primary, taking 48.4 percent of the votes, ahead of Bernie Sanders’ 19.9 percent. Tom Steyer took 11.3 percent before announcing that he was getting out of the race. Pete Buttigieg took 8.2 percent to come in fourth, and Elizabeth Warren took 7.1 percent to take fifth. Biden took the most votes in every single county.
Said Biden in his victory speech: “If Democrats want a nominee who’s a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, a proud Democrat, an Obama-Biden Democrat, join us. We have the option of winning big or losing big. That’s the choice.”
Tom Steyer, who spent millions campaigning in South Carolina and $158 million on TV and radio ads nationally, told his supporters: “There’s no question today that this campaign, we were disappointed with where we came out. But I said if I didn’t see a path to winning that I’d suspend my campaign, and honestly I can’t see a path where I can win the presidency.”
And Bernie Sanders’ campaign reported a huge fundraising haul on Sunday totaling $46.5 million for the month of February.
The Washington Post reports: “The cash infusion came from 2.2 million individual donations, including more than 350,000 people who gave to the Sanders campaign for the first time, officials said. On Saturday alone, the campaign said it raised $4.5 million. When President Obama was running for office in 2008, he raised $55 million over the same time period.”
