How did Biden overperform so much in South Carolina?

[VBM]

• Biden is well loved among the African American community as he has done a lot for them

Like writing a law that caused mass incarcerations that disproportionately affected the AA community?

I'll just leave this here, as if I didn't leave it up above less than 20 minutes ago:

It's hard to overstate the rapport that politicians like the Clintons & Biden have in African-American communities just because they've been incredibly focused their whole careers on the issues that matter to black voters. People misunderstand this relationship. It's especially evident when younger Bernie supporters try to point to the crime bill as an "Aha, gotcha!" moment for Biden when that legislation had staunch black support at the time due to the crime epidemic that was ravaging inner city communities. The perspective is that Biden (& Clinton) at least put forward solutions that, yes, might've backfired in some ways, but at least they were present & tried to work for the benefit of black communities.

Can you give me examples of Biden doing stuff to help the black community? This post only provides one example of him supposedly trying to help the black community and failing miserably? What are some instances of Biden passing some bills that actually helped blacks? Are they giving him a medal for trying?

Maybe I’m being cynical, but I don’t see why Biden would be so popular amongst blacks besides him being Obama’s VP. Tbh, if Biden was never Obama’s VP, I think that he would do just as well as Michael Bennet in these primaries.

[brucejoel99]

• Biden is well loved among the African American community as he has done a lot for them

Like writing a law that caused mass incarcerations that disproportionately affected the AA community?

I'll just leave this here, as if I didn't leave it up above less than 20 minutes ago:

It's hard to overstate the rapport that politicians like the Clintons & Biden have in African-American communities just because they've been incredibly focused their whole careers on the issues that matter to black voters. People misunderstand this relationship. It's especially evident when younger Bernie supporters try to point to the crime bill as an "Aha, gotcha!" moment for Biden when that legislation had staunch black support at the time due to the crime epidemic that was ravaging inner city communities. The perspective is that Biden (& Clinton) at least put forward solutions that, yes, might've backfired in some ways, but at least they were present & tried to work for the benefit of black communities.

Can you give me examples of Biden doing stuff to help the black community? This post only provides one example of him supposedly trying to help the black community and failing miserably? What are some instances of Biden passing some bills that actually helped blacks? Are they giving him a medal for trying?

He has spent decades talking to black voters & building relationships in the community. He's gone out to black neighborhoods, campaigned alongside black politicians, talked about black issues, & to top it all off, yeah, he was the VP for the nation's first black President, & I don't think you can understate how big of a deal it was for black voters to see an old white man proudly serve as the personal cheerleader for, let alone as the second-in-command to, our first black President.

Also, you do know that the crime bill was passed with black support, right? Yes, it ended up disproportionately negatively impacting the black community, but black people understand that he, like they, supported it for the right reasons; that, in hindsight, they & he were wrong to support it; & that they & he support changes in the here & now that would correct for the problems caused by it (e.g., making police reform a central tenet of his platform).

Maybe I’m being cynical, but I don’t see why Biden would be so popular amongst blacks besides him being Obama’s VP. Tbh, if Biden was never Obama’s VP, I think that he would do just as well as Michael Bennet in these primaries.

Yeah, maybe you're right, but black voters still appreciate that he has tried throughout his life to understand the plight of black people, & they like that he'll stand up for civil rights & for the middle class. Is that really such a credulous position to take?

[VBM]

South Carolina voters did listen to Joe Biden telling them to vote for someone else, but the problem is that they switched their vote to the other Biden

[iceman]

It's safe to say I guess every winner overperformed their poll numbers in South Carolina in the recents primaries: Obama 2008, Gingrich 2012, Hillary and Trump 2016, so Biden was no surprise either.

[Hermit For Peace]

Rural black voters do not care about the mess that Sanders and Warren go on and on about. They just don't.

They also don't get caught up in vanity campaigns like Pete.

The only person who had potential to penetrate that vote was Kamala Harris, which is why I became so bullish on Biden post her dropping out. He stumbled a bit after IA & NH but proved the durability of the black vote once you earn it.

Very true.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Bernie outperformed polls in NV

[wbrocks67]

Rural black voters do not care about the mess that Sanders and Warren go on and on about. They just don't.

They also don't get caught up in vanity campaigns like Pete.

The only person who had potential to penetrate that vote was Kamala Harris, which is why I became so bullish on Biden post her dropping out. He stumbled a bit after IA & NH but proved the durability of the black vote once you earn it.

This gets at the core of it. Black voters are more realistic and pragmatic, and don't necessarily want or care about Bernie's pie-in-the-sky promises. They're not monolithic, but I'd say it's an majority of them. Much like how most white liberals are more idealistic about all those policies, because not as much is at stake for them as black voters.

[Adam Griffin]

Biden didn't overperform. What did happen was that many of us got fooled (similar to 2008 & 2016) into thinking the state was competitive post-IA and that voters were ever anything but in Biden's camp:

47% Biden
20% Sanders
10% Warren
7% Steyer
6% Buttigieg

Erase the month of February from the narrative and this was almost exactly the expected result from the moment both Biden and Sanders announced.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

SC always is poorly polled and it's amazing that Atlas seems to forget that every cycle. There is usually a favored candidate and they win by a blowout on election day like Hillary and Obama the last two cycles. It was never going to be a high single digit Biden win