phones. >> watch afterwards tonight at 9:00 eastern on book tv on c-span2. >> the house will be in order. >> for 40 years c-span has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events from washington, d.c. and around the country, so you can make up your own mind. created by cable in 1979. c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. ist: joining us on the phone jamie lovegrove. screen somet on the new numbers, courtesy of real clear politics that suozzi the state of the race in south carolina. this is the summary of the most

recent polls with former vice president joe biden at 32%. then it are bernie sanders at 15%, closely followed by senator elizabeth warren. thomas tyer at 8% and pete buttigieg at 6%. have been pretty consistent over the last couple of months. why? guest: the former vice president has had a very durable base of support in south carolina. he is by far the best known of the candidates. favorablyed particularly by black voters in south carolina who make up a majority of the democratic electorate in south carolina. about 61% in 2016. because of his association with president obama, probably because he has been coming to south carolina for many years and has a lot of lengthy relationships here. he has been very popular with

that group of folks. it has been very hard for any other candidates to try to chip away at it. they have all been competing for second so far. and his lead has not really diminished. it will be interesting to see whether the results are whether the results in new hampshire will have an impact on that. at that has been the state of the race for several months here. host: the road to south carolina begins in iowa, then in new hampshire, then the first in the south primary in south carolina. for the biden campaign, is south carolina a firewall if he is doing poorly in the other two states? , they have tried to avoid using those words, but it's pretty clear that that is the case. onave spoken to the folks the campaign, as far back as last summer i asked whether he

viewed this as a state where, if things did not go as well and i'll or in new hampshire -- iowa or new hampshire, this could be a state to stop the bleeding and start winning some states. south carolina is significant because it has been bellwether for other southern states. there are a lot of delegates in the south. a lot of democratic strategists will say it is extraordinary -- extraordinarily hard to win the democratic vote without winning the black vote nationwide. south carolina's first test of a candidate strengths with the black vote. biden certainly sees that as a stronger situation for him then some of those wider, may be progressive states early on. host: jamie lovegrove is a political reporter for the post

courier.-- post and south carolina is a solid republican state in the general election, but what about in a primary? guest: the main hotbed of democratic votes is columbia, the state capital. but the democrats will point out there have been growing -- they have been growing their numbers, artainly in charleston where democratic candidate for congress one for the first time last year in 2018 in his 40 years. first time a democrat has represented trawls in 40 years. greenville, in the upstate has been viewed as the conservative stronghold, but the city of greenville has started to add quite a few democrats. they are spread out, but certainly columbia and richmond

county, ray in the middle of the state, has been the most frequent campaign stop for these candidates because it does not have the desk because i has the most amount of democratic voters. it has the most amount of democratic voters. have seenen to -- we the candidates go to some of these democratic towns and save it will work on behalf of all people, not just for folks in the big cities. aboutwe are here to talk presidential politics, but i want to talk about senator lindsey graham. in democratic challenger, one survey, statistically tied. how competitive will the senate race be this year? guest: it has been hard to read the polls in this race because they have been all over the map. is fairly early and senator graham's challenger, jamie harrison, his likely challenger, there are a couple of democrats running. he is still relatively unknown

in south carolina. chairman, butmer that is not a particularly well-known person outside of party politics. he now works with dnc and ran for dnc chairman after the 2016 election. he has raised a ton of money, which is certainly the first step to making a competitive election. senator graham has also raised a ton of money, even more. they have both set a fundraising records that will be an incredibly expensive race. i can certainly i imagine we will get national attention because of senator grams profile. it will be an appeal climb no matter what for jamie harrison. i think you would admit that himself. but never say never in this profession. host: one final question, tom stier, the billionaire has doubled his support approaching

double digits. he is now 8% or 9% depending on polls in south carolina. why is he moving up? guest: it is impossible to turn on a television, to turn on a radio, to turn on a computer in south carolina without seeing tom styer. he has completely blanketed the state with ads for several months now. he is all over tv when other candidates have not been at tv at all. you have billboards all over the roads. blitzed the state and made the state of nevada his top priorities. it appears to be paying off. he is still mostly right now competing what senator sanders, senator warren for that second part.

nobody is encroaching on joe biden. but tom -- tom starr has gone from a candidate who nobody has really known before the campaign .tyle it's quite an interesting story to watch. joining us lovegrove from charleston, south carolina, we thank you for being with us. rin murphy is joining me from des moines. let's talk about the polling in iowa showing bernie sanders is moving ahead. why? guest: when you talk about bernie, his strong base of supporters never left him throughout the process. other democrats have looked at the candidates in like to hear what they heard from this candidate or that candidate. bernie has his base that is with him till the end. that