Steyer says Nevada, South Carolina are ‘do or die’ for his campaign
Campaigning in South Carolina before heading to Nevada, California billionaire Tom Steyer said he knows he must have a strong showing in the next two primary states’ contests for his once unlikely presidential campaign to remain viable.
“They are do or die,” Steyer told reporters Monday after speaking to a crowd of about 300 people at University of South Carolina-Upstate. Steyer also traveled to Greenville for an event late Monday. “If I can’t show that people here care about me and what I’m saying resonates, then how am I going to convince people around the country that in fact it works?”
Steyer, who did not win any delegates in presidential nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, is now banking on support from the more diverse states of Nevada and South Carolina to produce momentum for his campaign.
Nevada Democrats hold their caucus on Saturday. South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary is Feb. 29.
In recent polls, former Vice President Joe Biden is leading in the Palmetto State, but U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Steyer have been cutting into that lead and battling for second place. Steyer also has been showing a gain in support among a key demographic: African Americans, who make up two thirds of South Carolina’s Democratic primary electorate.
Among those to support Steyer are Rochell and Cookie Dean, 71 and 69, of Spartanburg.
“They keep saying Biden is number one here. I talk to young people, they like Tom Steyer,” said Cookie Dean, who originally supported Biden. “Then I realized what I was doing was I was putting him with President Obama. I was going to vote for Biden because he was vice president for Obama, but then Steyer came out. He’s not an everyday politician. He gives a fresh look on politics.”
Not everyone who attended the event supports Steyer. Ciera Edwards, 25, of Greenville, a USC Upstate student in her junior year, said she is undecided.
She wants whoever becomes the Democratic nominee to work on health care insurance access and reducing student loan debt.
She quit her job working for BMW as an assembly trainer to study full time last year and had to change her health insurance.
“If you don’t have certain types of jobs, you don’t have the best type of insurance,” Edwards said.
She is now $20,000 in debt to pay for her schooling and doesn’t have any grants or scholarships.
“I didn’t want to wait because I don’t have the cash on hand,” Edwards said, who has a year and half to go in school.
Sanders had supporters in the crowd who still wanted to hear Steyer speak.
“I believe in political activism, no matter what, no matter your stance,” said 18-year-old Jared Keklak, who said he attended the event because he wanted to hear Steyer’s pitch. ”I think if you believe in democracy, that’s a good thing to do.”
Emily Brown, 39, of Spartanburg, who is supporting Steyer, brought her son Levi, 6, and daughter Hensley, 9, to hear Steyer’s remarks, promoted as a conversation on environmental and racial justice.
“I like how he’s brave to talk about things like a racial justice council,” Brown said. “He’s unapologetic when he talks about the environment. He speaks truth and isn’t afraid.”
The crowd also had at least one supporter of President Donald Trump.
While wearing a Make America Great Again hat, Aaron Reiter, a senior nursing student at USC Upstate, stood in the back during Steyer’s remarks, and even took a picture with the Democratic candidate.
“What better way for us to come together than to learn on both sides,” Reiter said. “I get to hear him first hand, get to see his views — I’m just very interested in the different views in politics.”
During his 40 minutes on stage at USC Upstate, which included a question and answer period, Steyer called for term limits, and specifically cited Republican U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham.
One name he didn’t mention during his remarks to the crowd was U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, the U.S. House majority whip and the most prominent African American elected official in the state, having been in Congress since 1993. Clyburn also holds the most coveted endorsement for Democrats in the state and has been under pressure to weigh in on an increasingly competitive primary.
Instead, Steyer heaped praise on Clyburn.
“Jim Clyburn is a great representative of the state of South Carolina,” Steyer told reporters. “Jim Clyburn would be in office if there were term limits no matter what. Jim Clyburn is probably one of the most popular people in the country, and he could run for a bunch of different offices and win. He’s somebody I totally respect, and he’s done a great job and has done it in the right way.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 6:48 PM.
