Bernie Sanders gains support in South Carolina as billionaire Tom Steyer draws votes from Joe Biden

Billionaire Tom Steyer has poured money into outreach to African-American voters, who make up more than half of South Carolina’s Democratic electorate.

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Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate comes just four days before South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary — and one week before more than a dozen states vote on Super Tuesday. Billionaire Tom Steyer has poured money into outreach to African-American voters, who make up more than half of South Carolina’s Democratic electorate. He may help front-runner Bernie Sanders build an insurmountable delegate lead. A new Reuters poll shows Senator Sanders has overtaken former Vice President Joe Biden in support among African Americans. We speak with three guests in South Carolina: Kevin Alexander Gray, a longtime civil rights activist and community organizer, author of “Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics,” and Jesse Jackson’s South Carolina campaign manager in 1988; Democratic state Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter, president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, as well as a senior national adviser for Tom Steyer; and Adolph Reed Jr., professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, a columnist with The New Republic and an organizer for the “I’m a Medicare for All Voter” campaign in South Carolina.

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