The Democratic party’s race for a presidential candidate saw a significant shift on Saturday night as former U.S. Vice-President Joseph R Biden Jr. won the South Carolina primary by a landslide, with support from the state’s African American community. Mr. Biden, who has projected himself as the establishment wing of the party, won 48.4% of the vote and 33 of the 54 available delegates, with Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who is leading the progressive wing of the party, coming in second with 19.9% of the vote and 11 delegates.

Having performed poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr Biden’s position in the primaries has been secured — at least for now — by Saturday night’s victory in South Carolina, giving his candidacy momentum as the country heads to ‘Super Tuesday’ when 14 states hold primaries. Some 61% of blacks supported Mr. Biden on Saturday as per exit polls conducted by Edison Media Research compared to 17% supporting Mr Sanders — 56% of those who voted were black.

Mr. Sanders leads the delegate count nationally, followed by Mr. Biden.

Buttigieg draws a blank

Pete Buttigieg, the former Southbend Indiana Mayor, who leads Mr. Sanders in Iowa delegates (the results have been challenged by Sanders campaign) is third in overall delegates. However, the Mayor, who has failed to gain traction in the African American community, got no delegates from South Carolina.

It was a bad night for billionaire Tom Steyer as well, whose proposed policies included climate action, a wealth tax, a minimum wage and addressing ‘unchecked capitalism’. Mr. Steyer, who came in third in terms of vote share (11.3%) but failed to win any delegates, announced that he is dropping out of the race.

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Mr. Sanders, who is the most popular candidate among younger Democrats and whose campaign message is social and economic justice, has also been improving his ratings among African Americans nationally. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from last week ranked Mr. Sanders ahead of Mr. Biden nationally in terms of popularity with African Americans. In South Carolina, Mr. Sanders won the 17-29 age group (43% versus Mr. Biden’s 26%) but Mr. Biden had a progressively greater lead over Mr. Sanders in older age groups.

Mr. Biden’s victory speech on Saturday night had what appeared to be repeated veiled references to Mr. Sanders. “Talk is cheap. False promises are deceptive. And talk of a revolution isn’t changing anyone’s life,” Mr. Biden said. Mr. Biden and other centrist Democrats have taken issue with Mr. Sander’s universal healthcare proposition, ‘Medicare for All’ as being too expensive to fund. Mr. Biden also thanked one of his key African American supporters on Saturday night.

Praises for ‘buddy’

“My buddy Jim Clyburn, you brought me back,” he said to the U.S. House of Representative’s Majority Whip, who had given Mr. Biden his influential endorsement and spoke before Mr. Biden at the latter’s victory speech on Saturday.

At least five Democrats, including Mr. Biden, Mr. Buttigieg, former New York City Mayor and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and progressive candidate Elizabeth Warren, as well as Senator from Minnesota and moderate, Amy Klobuchar, were scheduled to be in Alabama on Sunday to mark the attack on a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery 55 years ago, Reuters reported. Alabama is one of fourteen states that will vote on Tuesday.

On Saturday, Mr. Sanders flew to the delegate-rich California, which also votes on Tuesday, when 34% of delegates who will vote in the nominating convention later this year will be awarded.