Vice President Kamala Harris flew to South Carolina on Friday to file paperwork putting President Joe Biden on the 2024 presidential ballot of the state, which will lead off the Democratic presidential primary thanks to a White House-led schedule overhaul meant to better empower Black voters.
Harris was joined in the state capital by South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of the leading Black voices in Congress. Then-candidate Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign was floundering after big losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, but rebounded with a decisive South Carolina win that was solidified by Clyburn’s late endorsement.
That 2020 boost gave Biden enough momentum to romp through Super Tuesday, clinch his party’s primary and later the White House. Since announcing his re-election bid in April, Biden has made far more frequent official visits to Pennsylvania — a key battleground in the general election — than states that will decide Democrats’ 2024 primary.
But Harris’ visit follows the vice president spending recent months traveling the country, including a college tour that has taken her to leading Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She’s looking to build excitement among young people and voters of color at a time when polls show that even a majority of Democrats, believe Biden is too old to handle the rigors of a second term.
“It was South Carolina that created the path to the White House for Joe Biden and me,” Harris said.
“I’m here to say thank you,” she said. “Let’s do it again.”
Iowa’s 2020 caucus was marred by technical glitches, and Biden asked last year that the Democratic National Party replace it in the leadoff spot with South Carolina. He said Black and other minority voters need to play a larger, earlier role in determining the Democratic presidential nominee.
The DNC approved a new 2024 calendar where South Carolina’s primary on Feb. 3 will be followed three days later by Nevada. The schedule also moves Michigan into the group of early states voting before Super Tuesday on March 5, when most of the rest of the country holds primaries.
DNC chair Jaime Harrison joined Clyburn at the airport for Harris’ arrival in Columbia.
“The Biden-Harris coalition will be out in full force in South Carolina and will be how we defeat MAGA extremism once again in 2024,” Biden reelection campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement, referring to former President Donald Trump, who has built a commanding early lead in next year’s Republican presidential primary, and his ”Make American Great Again” slogan.
Harris spoke in a crowded room at state party headquarters, flanked by cheering supporters holding Biden-Harris and South Carolina Democratic Party signs. Asked to predict how Biden would do in February’s primary, Harris responded, “We’re going to win.”
Referring to this week’s elections, when Democrats won in key races across the country, Harris said, “We are here with the wind at our back, because, did anyone notice what happened on Tuesday?”