(202) 748-8002 joining us on the phone is james, political reporter with post and courier. i want to put on the screen new the stateat show you of the race in south carolina. of the a summary of all most recent polls with former vice president joe biden at 32%, senator bernie sanders at 15%, followed by senator elizabeth warren, tom steyer at 8%, and pete buttigieg at 6%. these numbers have been consistent over the last few months. why? former vice president has had a very durable base of support in south carolina. he is by far the best known of the candidates. he is viewed favorably by black voters of south carolina who

of the the majority democratic electorate in south carolina, 61% in 2016. it is partly because of his association with president obama, the vice president, partly because he has been coming to south carolina for many years and has lengthy relationships here. he has been very popular with that group of folks and it has been hard for the other candidates to try and chip away at it. they have all been competing for second so far. his lead has not really diminished. it will be interesting to see whether the results in iowa involves new hampshire -- or new hampshire will have an impact on that. that has been the state of the race for months. the road to south carolina begins in iowa and then new hampshire. in the first time in south carolina. biden campaign, is south

carolina a firewall if he fares orlie in the other two states? -- poorly in the other two states? >> it is preclear that is the case. i have spoken to folks on the campaign and the vice president himself. as far back as last summer in an interview with him, i asked whether he viewed this as a state where, if things did not go as well and i >> he hoped and in new hampshire, that this could be a place to start winning some states. part of the reason with south carolina -- that south carolina been significant is it has historically a bellwether for other southern states. there are a lot of delegates in the south. it is extraordinarily hard to win the democratic presidential nomination without winning the

black vote. nationwide. carolina is the first test of a candidate's strength with the black vote. den certainly sees that as a stronger situation for him than and morehose whiter progressive states early on. host: we're talking with a politico reporter joining us live via skype from charleston, south carolina. when you look at the political demographics of south carolina, it is a solid republican state in a general election, but what about in the primary and where are the democratic votes in your state? guest: the main hotbed of democratic votes is in columbia. democrats have been growing their numbers, certainly in charleston, where a democratic foridate for congress won

the first time last year in 2018, in 48 year -- in 40 years. has historically been viewed as the conservative stronghold, but the city of greenville is also starting to add quite a few democrats. columbiaspread out but and richmond county in the middle of the state has been the for frequent campaign stop a lot of these candidates because it does have the most amount of democratic voters. the candidates are trying to get all over the state and south carolina is a state with a lot of rural areas and we are seeing candidates go to these rural towns to demonstrate that they are going to be a president that will work for not just the folks in the big cities. i want to ask you about

senator lindsey graham. his democratic challenger in one survey statistically tied. how competitive is the senate race going to be this year? guest: it has been hard to read the polls in that race. it is fairly early and senator graham's challenger, the likely by farger who has raised the most money, he is still relatively unknown in south carolina. former south the carolina democratic chairman, but that is not really a well-known person outside of party politics. he now works for the dnc, he ran for the dnc chairman back after the 2016 election. money,raised a ton of which is certainly the first step to making a competitive election. senator graham also raised a ton of money, even more. they both have studied fund-raising records.

imagine we will get national attention because of senator graham's profile. it will be an uphill climb the matter what for harrison. i think he would admit that himself. you never say never in this profession. host: tom steyer, the billionaire, has doubled his support, approach in double digits. he is now in the 8% or 9% attending to the polls in south carolina. why is he moving up? guest: it is impossible to turn on a television, a radio, a computer in south carolina right now, without seeing tom steyer very quickly. he has completely blanketed the state with ads for several months now. when otherver tv candidates have not been on tv at all or barely on tv.

he has got pulled with all over the roads. state really placed the -- blitzed the state and the state of nevada are his top areas. he is still mostly right now competing with senator sanders and senator warren for that second spot. nobody is really encroaching on joe biden at this point. the fact that tom steyer has gone from a candidate who nobody really knew before this campaign is anto that position interesting story to watch. host: a political reporter from the post-courierprime time on my the third. we are joined on the phone by the bureau chief of lead enterprises. ahead sanders is moving in polling in iowa. why?