Biden easily won South Carolina Democratic primary, but faced low voter turnout

Incumbent President Joe Biden won by a decisive margin in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary with roughly 96% of the vote.

The Associated Press called the race for Biden only 23 minutes after polls closed Saturday.

At a dinner on Jan. 29 to celebrate the state’s “first-in-the-nation” Democratic primary, Biden told a crowd of SC Democrats that the state was critical to his 2020 election win. South Carolina shifted on the primary calendar ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire at the president’s request to allow states with more diverse populations to go first.

"In 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the Presidency," Biden said in a statement after Saturday’s results. "Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again—and making Donald Trump a loser—again."

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Author and former 2020 candidate Marianne Williamson saw a second-place finish with only 2.1% of the vote, while U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) only secured 1.7%.

Despite his loss, Phillips said he’s not leaving the race.

"Cracking four digits never felt so good! Congratulations, Mr. President, on a good old-fashioned whooping. See you in Michigan," Phillips posted on X Saturday night.

Overall, voter turnout was low in South Carolina at 4% with 131,870 votes cast. The Upstate was no exception with around 2-3% voter turnout in most counties in the region. Low voter turnout could impact South Carolina's position in the primaries in 2028.

Biden collected 94.6% of the vote in Greenville County, 95.4% in Spartanburg County, and 94.75% in Anderson County.

South Carolina, Upstate sees low voter turnout

When polls opened at 7 a.m., Upstate poll managers saw voters trickle in lightly and infrequently.

"I predict it to be very slow and steady because this is the presidential primary,” C.C. Woodson Community Center clerk Marilyn Parks said early Saturday morning.

"Usually in the primaries, we don't have many voters come out," Parks, a native of Spartanburg’s Southside, said. "A lot of them have the mentality that primaries don't count, but what we're trying to instill now is that this is where it all starts ― with the primary."

Ultimately, South Carolina saw only 4% voter turnout statewide with 131,870 ballots cast, the lowest turnout in the past three Democratic presidential preference primaries. In 2020, the state saw roughly 16% voter turnout and 12.6% turnout in 2016. Former President Barack Obama, the last incumbent Democratic candidate, ran unopposed in 2012's state primaries.

Upstate counties saw a turnout of around 2-3%.

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Greenville County saw 2.91% voter turnout with 9,607 ballots cast, while 4,752 ballots were cast in Spartanburg County with only 2.4% voter turnout and 2,407 in Anderson with 1.99% turnout.

Only one Greenville County precinct - Belle Meade in Gantt - cracked over 10% turnout of registered voters, with 161 voters casting their ballot for Biden.

In 2020, 540,062 South Carolinians voted in the Democratic primary – about 16% of registered voters. Similarly, counties in the Upstate saw higher turnout in 2020 with Greenville County also seeing 16.5% voter turnout with 54,322 ballots cast, Spartanburg with 12.45% turnout with 23,613 and Anderson with 11% turnout with 13,337 ballots cast.

Biden performed better in Upstate compared to 2020 primary

The Upstate was the least friendly region for Biden in 2020’s primary where he saw some of the weakest results in the state. Overall, Biden won South Carolina’s primary in 2020 with 48.65% of the vote, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in second with 19.7%.

But while Biden saw closer to 50% of the vote in most counties throughout the state, the president finished with less than 40% of the vote in Greenville, Oconee and Pickens counties. In contrast, Sanders saw some of his best results in the Upstate.

Pickens County — the state's whitest and most Republican county — gave Sanders his strongest results at 27.73%.

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According to prior reporting from the Greenville News, the turnout was speculated to be in part due to "Operation Chaos"— a counter-campaign led by some state GOP leaders to urge voters to pick Sanders over Biden to give former President Donald Trump an "easier" opponent to beat.

With a less competitive race, Biden performed better in the Upstate this time around.

In Saturday’s primary, Biden collected 94.6% of the vote in Greenville County, 95.4% in Spartanburg County, and 94.75% in Anderson County.

He also finished significantly stronger in other counties in the Upstate:

• 95.05% in Pickens County

• 94.79% in Oconee County

• 95.91% in Cherokee County

• 95.47% in Abbeville County

• 95.92% in Union County

• 96.94% in Laurens County

Statewide he collected 96% of the total vote.

South Carolina’s Republican primary is up next on Feb. 24 where Nikki Haley faces an uphill battle in her home state against former President Trump.

Nina Tran contributed reporting.

Kathryn Casteel is an investigative reporter and editor with The Greenville News and can be reached at KCasteel@gannett.com or on X @kathryncasteel.

Chalmers Rogland covers public safety for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal and USA Today Network. Reach him via email at crogland@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Biden easily won SC Democratic primary but faced low turnout