[ad_1]
Marianne Williamson, the self-help writer now on her second long-shot run for president, appeared to complete forward of Consultant Dean Phillips of Minnesota within the South Carolina Democratic major on Saturday, inching previous the candidate who has to date been President Biden’s most vital, albeit distant, rival.
With 97 p.c of votes counted, Ms. Williamson has 2.1 p.c and Mr. Phillips has 1.7 p.c. Whereas the race is an amazing victory for Mr. Biden — with greater than 96 p.c — it’s nonetheless essentially the most assist Ms. Williamson has acquired in an official Democratic major. She ended her 2020 marketing campaign weeks earlier than the Iowa caucuses.
Ms. Williamson’s very distant second-place end is a major blow to Mr. Phillips. His marketing campaign spent about $4.6 million within the final three months of 2023, and he lent it $4 million of his personal cash, in response to a submitting with the Federal Election Fee.
Mr. Phillips had tried to set very low expectations for his efficiency in South Carolina. He projected on social media on Friday that Mr. Biden “ought to get 95 p.c of the vote in South Carolina.” His forecast was not far off.
Mr. Phillips appeared to take his third-place end on Saturday in stride. “Cracking 4 digits by no means felt so good!” he wrote on social media, referring to the roughly 1,400 votes he had on the time. (He completed with some 2,200.) He added: “Congratulations, Mr. President, on quaint whooping. See you in Michigan.”
Each of Mr. Biden’s challengers appeared sometimes at marketing campaign occasions in South Carolina, although Ms. Williamson started visiting the state practically a 12 months in the past, and Mr. Phillips made his first journey after becoming a member of the race in November.
The Put up and Courier reported that at one occasion final month in Columbia, S.C., employees members with Mr. Phillips’s marketing campaign feared attendance wouldn’t be excessive sufficient to justify the variety of chairs that they had arrange. They organized a smaller quantity in a circle for the ten individuals who finally confirmed up. “This seems like a séance,” Mr. Phillips mentioned when he walked into the room.
He put considerably extra effort into campaigning in New Hampshire, the place he hoped for an upset efficiency that will have given him momentum within the race. He completed with lower than 20 p.c of the vote, shedding overwhelmingly to Mr. Biden, who was not, actually, on the poll.
Nonetheless, he beat Ms. Williamson by greater than 15 factors.
[ad_2]
Source link
