Biden win resets Democratic race, sets up Super Tuesday showdown

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pulled off a must-win victory Saturday in the South Carolina primary, giving his struggling campaign much needed momentum going into this week’s Super Tuesday balloting but still leaving big questions about whether he can overtake frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders to win the nomination. 

“Just days ago, the press and the pundits declared this campaign dead,” Biden said in his victory speech. “Now, thanks to all of you, the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, we just won and we won big because of you. We are very much alive.”

To be sure, the decisive South Carolina win puts the former vice president back in the race, after having failed to win in any of the first three state-nominating contests -- Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. 

Biden on Saturday won nearly 50 percent of the vote, followed by Sanders with roughly 20 percent and Tom Steyer with about 11 percent.

Steyer, a California billionaire and environmentalist, ended his campaign Saturday night, after staking much of his resources on winning in South Carolina, including about $160 million of his own money.

Biden was projected to win South Carolina from about the time he entered the White House race. 

He has long-standing support from African-American voters, who make up about 30 percent of the South Carolina population, which essentially set up a do-or-die situation for his campaign this weekend in that state.

Despite Biden’s so-called “firewall” holding up in South Carolina, he still faces a big, uphill battle on Super Tuesday, just two days away, when voters in 14 states, including delegate-rich California and Texas, go to the polls. 

Roughly one-third of the required 1,991 delegates needed to win the nomination are up for grabs Tuesday.

The unofficial delegate count after South Carolina is 56 for Sanders, 51 for Biden and 26 for the long-shot campaign of Pete Buttigieg, whose highest office so far is mayor of South Bend, Indiana. 

The Sanders campaign is well funded and hauled in a $46 million in February.  

The money has helped Sanders, a democratic socialist, establish a formidable ground game for Super Tuesday, running TV ads and putting campaign offices in the balloting states. He reportedly has 22 offices in California, compared to one for Biden, a moderate seeking a broad coalition to defeat President Trump in November. His South Carolina win should bring in much needed campaign contributions.

Sanders also has a sizable lead on the Democratic field in California and Texas, according to polls. 

“I feel very strongly that the people of this country on Super Tuesday and after are going to support this campaign because it’s more than a campaign, it’s a movement,” Sander said after losing in South Carolina.

Biden acknowledged on “Fox News Sunday” that a poor performance Tuesday “wouldn’t help” his campaign but pointed out that balloting in other key states -- including battlegrounds Florida and Michigan -- are to follow.

“It’s a marathon,” he said.