Perhaps the biggest question of the Democratic primary race is whether Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren can extend her appeal beyond her white well-educated base. Specifically, can she earn the support of black voters, who are the base of the Democratic Party?
Our South Carolina poll suggests the Massachusetts senator has a lot of work to do. She gets only 4% of the black likely primary voters. That looks quite similar to the 2% Warren was earning amongst this group in previous polls by Fox News and Monmouth University.
For comparison, Warren's at 28% among white voters in our South Carolina poll.
Black voters, of course, make up a majority or near a majority of Democratic primary voters in southern primaries such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. Warren's going to run into some major problems in southern primaries if she can't do better with this bloc of voters.
Biden, for his part, wants to count on South Carolina as a firewall if he loses the states of Iowa and New Hampshire. I'm not sure he can do that, but so far his support from black voters is holding in South Carolina. He's at 45% among them in this poll, which is about where he was in previous South Carolina polling.
The two black candidates in the race, Booker and Harris, are at 1% and 6%, among black voters respectively. Sanders is in second at 13% with this group.