detailing how those in his inner circle<\/a> shielded the president’s deteriorating condition from the outside world \u2014 has only resurfaced some long-held misgivings about his legacy.<\/p>\n\u201cAll this talk about President Biden and what should have and what could have, what might have, is a bunch of bullshit,\u201d said Trav Robertson, a longtime Democratic operative and former chair of the state party. \u201cWe can peck that to death if you want to, but that is in the past. South Carolina represents going into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Carolina, a state where Black Democrats make up a substantial portion of primary voters, played a pivotal role resurrecting Biden\u2019s moribund campaign. When Clyburn threw his support behind Biden ahead of the South Carolina primary in 2020, it vaulted him to the nomination and later, the presidency. In return, Biden pressured the Democratic Party to upend its traditional nomination calendar by moving the state to the lead-off position.<\/p>\n
But that electoral situation was tenuous. By running for reelection, Biden sapped energy out of the 2024 primary. Now, party officials are bracing for its status as the kickoff state to be ripped away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be a mistake to act like South Carolina’s place [at the top] is just because of Biden, when this has been a conversation we’ve been having for 20 years,\u201d said Nick Sottile, an attorney and executive director of the South Carolina House Democrats.<\/p>\n
Like nearly every Democrat in the state, he points out the benefits of South Carolina are vast. In addition to paying homage to a vital Democratic voting bloc, the small state with relatively cheap media markets won\u2019t bankrupt campaigns, which can hit upstate, midlands and the coast \u2014 a mix of urban, suburban and rural areas \u2014 all on a single tank of gas. Then there\u2019s the robust defense of South Carolina primary voters’ history of picking presidents \u2014 Bill Clinton in 1992, Barack Obama in 2008 and Biden in 2020 \u2014 particularly in contrast to New Hampshire and Iowa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get it right, and it’s a proven track record,\u201d Sottile added. \u201cIt’s not one election and one candidate that we’re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
That feeling is not shared by many outside the state.<\/p>\n
A longtime member of the DNC\u2019s committee that helps determine the presidential primary order granted anonymity to discuss informal discussions suggested South Carolina\u2019s current spot atop the calendar will undoubtedly come under scrutiny in the coming months.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly South Carolina members will want to continue to be first in the calendar for obvious reasons,\u201d the person said. \u201cI think that no one else is going to feel any kind of obligation to keep South Carolina at the top of the calendar \u2014 because Biden is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden may have unintentionally shattered South Carolina\u2019s standing next cycle, which only adds to a sense of betrayal over his role in ushering in another Trump presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people who are just mad as hell about everything that happened in 2024,\u201d said Sam Skardon of Charleston.<\/p>\n
He admits he was one of the few in the state party who believed Biden\u2019s promise to be a \u201cbridge\u201d candidate to the next generation. He took the job as chair of the Charleston County Democrats in March 2023 hoping to preside over a robust primary. A month later, Biden announced his reelection bid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s a special connection here that\u2019s a deeper attachment, I think, than most states’ Democratic Parties have to President Biden, probably up there with Delaware for thinking of him as our own,\u201d Skardon added. \u201cBut yeah, then there is additional anger, I think, at Biden for \u2026 not not letting us put our best foot forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some believe Biden is simply too convenient a scapegoat for the party\u2019s broader problems. Backpedaling on giving Black voters more of a say in picking the party\u2019s nominee could erode trust in a bloc that’s already drifting away from the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a slap in the face \u2026 to Black Americans, where people are questioning Joe Biden at this point,\u201d said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist who resumed his role as emcee of the fish fry. \u201cIt was Joe Biden who had the steel spine, the guts and the courage to declare that Black Americans’ voices should be heard first in the presidential preference process.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Seawright also shared concerns that too many voters here view Democrats as out of touch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think trust was a part of the formula for Trump’s success in the last election cycle,\u201d Seawright added. \u201cYou had some people who, in my opinion, did not necessarily vote for Donald Trump, they voted against the Democratic brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Palmetto Dinner, Jaime Harrison, the chair emeritus of the Democratic National Committee and Orangeburg, South Carolina, native revved up the crowd by putting a positive spin on the party\u2019s standing in state since Biden left the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are more organized, we are more energized, and we are more focused than ever before,\u201d he said, heaping praise on the state\u2019s party chair Christale Spain who was elected to a second term on Saturday. \u201cI am going to be on record right now to the South Carolina Republican Party, 2026 is going to be a reckoning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanda Loveday, a Democratic strategist based in Columbia who worked on Biden\u2019s 2020 presidential campaign, is another South Carolina defender. But she is less optimistic given South Carolina\u2019s Democrats, who have long been locked out of power in the state, suffered setbacks last cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost [state] Senators and House members that we have absolutely no business losing,\u201d Loveday said, which included two prominent Black lawmakers including state Sen. Gerald Malloy and state Rep. Joseph Jefferson.<\/p>\n
Republicans flipped four state Senate seats last cycle, leaving just 12 Democrats in the chamber. And in the presidential election, Trump\u2019s victory was never in doubt, but he increased his margin by 6 percentage points over 2020.<\/p>\n
All this is fueling speculation that South Carolina\u2019s neighbors \u2014 North Carolina and Georgia \u2014 which have notched statewide wins for Democrats in recent cycles, have better arguments to hurdle South Carolina in the primary calendar.<\/p>\n