Joe Biden's campaign got good news Thursday, as a new poll added to the evidence that he's on track to win South Carolina's presidential primary on Saturday — a victory he desperately needs to keep his flagging campaign alive.
The new survey, from the highly regarded Monmouth University poll, shows Biden with support of 36% of likely Democratic primary voters in the state, ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders with 16% and Tom Steyer, the billionaire activist and philanthropist, with 15%. Another 15% of voters remain undecided, and the rest of the candidates drew support in single digits.
Biden has had strong support among black voters, who typically make up around 60% of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina, in part because of the goodwill he accumulated through eight years as the vice president to the country's first black president. But after defeats in the first three contests — in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada — Biden's allies have worried that black voters would desert him for another candidate.
The Monmouth poll indicates that's not happening. Biden has the support of 45% of black voters in the survey, ahead of Steyer, who has 17%. Sanders got 13%.
