Palmetto Poll: Before Clyburn endorsement, Biden had wide lead in SC presidential primary
While questions about whether former Vice President Joe Biden can win South Carolina swirl, a new poll released Wednesday gives Biden a more comfortable lead in the race for the Palmetto State.
The Palmetto Poll, conducted by Clemson University, gave Biden an 18-percentage-point lead over the next closest Democratic presidential hopeful, businessman Tom Steyer.
Steyer received support from 17% of likely Democratic voters surveyed in the poll, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the national front-runner, received support from 13% of voters.
Twelve percent of those polled said they were still unsure who they would vote for on Saturday.
The poll, which in the field from Feb. 17 to Tuesday, before Democratic hopefuls hit the debate stage in Charleston, surveyed voters who participated in Democratic primaries in 2016 and 2018 and are committed to voting on Saturday, said Clemson pollster Dave Woodard. Those voters skewed older, Woodard added.
The largest age group surveyed in the poll, voters age 65 and older accounted for 43% of voters surveyed.
Older South Carolina Democrats, Woodard said, know Biden well from his time as President Barack Obama’s vice president. Biden also, most recently, spoke at the funerals of two prominent U.S. senators from South Carolina: Democrat Fritz Hollings, last year, and Republican Strom Thurmond in 2003.
“Among older voters, he’s a familiar name,” Woodard said, adding that Biden led every day the poll was in the field.
About 40% of the 650 likely voters polled over the phone or online said they made up their minds on who to vote for before the primary began. Biden had the highest rate of name recognition — he tied with Sanders — and cornered the highest number of voters with a favorable opinion of him.
Biden has long called South Carolina his firewall, a state that he has maintained the lead in since declaring his candidacy. But some recent polls have placed Sanders within the margin of error of defeating the former vice president in the Palmetto State.
After victories in New Hampshire and Nevada, Sanders has gained momentum, which has propelled him to being the front-runner in national polls.
On the Charleston debate stage Tuesday night, though, Biden strongly maintained that he would win South Carolina when voters head to the polls Saturday.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 5:14 PM.
