--- title: Why Bernie Sanders Is Struggling to Win Over Black Voters description: Sanders badly trails rival Hillary Clinton among African Americans in South Carolina. If he cannot narrow that gap, he cannot win. canonical: https://time.com/4226723/bernie-sanders-black-voters-south-carolina/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-17T00:31:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:08:04.477Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Bernie Sanders Is Struggling to Win Over Black Voters og:description: The Vermont Senator badly trails Hillary Clinton in South Carolina og:url: https://time.com/4226723/bernie-sanders-black-voters-south-carolina/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9018729314717ce8/69887de1cf40a82bd3c41fea/bernie-sanders12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3733 og:image:height: 2100 og:image:alt: Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders Holds Town Hall Event At The University Of South Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Bernie Sanders Is Struggling to Win Over Black Voters twitter:description: The Vermont Senator badly trails Hillary Clinton in South Carolina twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9018729314717ce8/69887de1cf40a82bd3c41fea/bernie-sanders12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Bernie Sanders Is Struggling With Black Voters in South Carolina > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=9180c3b8-bb84-46cb-83b8-0321ea54b29b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Raw: Bernie Sanders Talks Reparations At Race Forum In Michigan [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Raw: Bernie Sanders Talks Reparations At Race Forum In Michigan](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lU7O3EyC.m3u8) (3:18)  _Published 2016-02-13_  by [Philip Elliott / Charleston, S.C.](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott / Charleston, S.C. Senior Correspondent Feb 17, 2016 12:31 AM UTC  Bernie Sanders speaks during a town hall event at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. on Feb. 16, 2016. Bernie Sanders speaks during a town hall event at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. on Feb. 16, 2016. Daniel Acker—Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott / Charleston, S.C.](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott / Charleston, S.C. Senior Correspondent Feb 17, 2016 12:31 AM UTC To understand why Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is not in meltdown mode after an indecisive tie in Iowa and a blowout in New Hampshire, it’s important to take a look at her rival’s crowds. Here in Charleston, S.C., as Bernie Sanders rallied his supporters on Tuesday, the audience was almost entirely white. It’s simply impossible to win the state’s Democratic primary with only white voters. If 2008’s primary electorate is any hint, white voters will be in the minority when Democrats vote on Feb. 27. Sanders made the cursory nod to the civil rights movement here in this deeply Southern city. But he largely stuck to his standard fare: Wall Street and super PACs are bad, corporate greed is evil and a populist revolution is afoot. “Together, we’re going to create an economy that works for working families … not just the 1%,” Sanders said. “What does that mean? That means in America, someone who works 40 hours a week should not live in poverty.” That rhetoric has often brought crowds to their feet, and delivered him a victory in New Hampshire. But his crowd Tuesday afternoon simply does not look like a winning coalition he would need if he is to win this state. To be sure, it’s one event in one room in one city during a daytime event. People who can set aside a few hours in the middle of a workday tend to be older voters, salaried professionals or self-employed individuals. Many were retired or students. But the scene reflected a poll released during the same hour. CNN finds Clinton leading among black voters, 65% to 28%, in South Carolina. White voters tilt to Sanders, 54% to 40%, but they are likely to be outnumbered. Sanders urged his supporters to keep their optimism. “We were 50 points behind in the polls, and we ended up with a virtual tie,” Sanders said of Iowa. “In New Hampshire, we were 30 points down and we won. I am almost embarrassed to tell you how far behind we are here.” CNN had no such shame. Overall, Clinton leads Sanders in the state 56% to 38%. “People say Bernie Sanders cannot win here in South Carolina. His ideas are too radical,” Sanders said of himself. “I don’t believe that. I believe that in South Carolina and all across this country, people are saying enough is enough.” Some black voters are indeed feeling the Bern. “Right now, I’m leaning toward Bernie,” said Robina Hartwell, a 65-year-old Democrat from Charleston who attended the Sanders rally. Like many fellow African Americans, she voted for Bill Clinton. But she’s not quite sold on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. “Not so much,” she says of her affinity for a second Clinton White House. But will enough African-American voters join her in backing Sanders? “We’ll see, won’t we,” she says. The campaign is aware of the challenges. “When I call black voters, they don’t know Bernie,” said Carol Martin, a 69-year-old Sanders volunteer from Mount Pleasant. When she’s at the campaign offices, around other Bernie backers, she has hope that they might narrow the gap against Clinton. “When I leave and go into the real world, that energy fades a little,” she said. “In the real world, I have a tough time finding people who agree with me.” It’s cases like this that show Sanders’ pathway to the nomination is anything but easy, despite strong early state showings. Sanders has yet to prove he can connect with minority voters, and while he is making efforts, he faces an uphill battle among a voting bloc that still holds tremendous affinity for former President Bill Clinton. Then there’s Sanders himself. He’s not a natural politician and his message sometimes feels crafted to lose votes, not win them. The self-described democratic socialist promotes ideas he knows are, in his own words, “radical,” and he has the tendency to stumble on local issues. For instance, he has strong words for the Walton Family that founded Walmart, saying they benefit from corporate welfare and should be ashamed of themselves. In South Carolina, the company has 31,000 employees at 111 stores. The Waltons help those families pay rent. His efforts at minority outreach can also sound vague and halfhearted. Take his attempt to shoehorn himself into Clinton’s message of the day about criminal-justice reform: “We are assembled here today because we are fighting Establishment politics and we are fighting Establishment politics. We know that this great country can be much more,” he said. “Change only comes when millions of people look around them and say this is wrong. Racism is wrong. Sexism is wrong. Phobia is wrong.” In Harlem, the former Secretary of State showed that she’s just better at talking about race than Sanders. “We still need to face the painful reality that African Americans are three times as likely as whites to be denied a mortgage,” she said. “Just imagine if white kids were 500% more likely to die of asthma than black kids. Imagine if a white baby in South Carolina were twice as likely to die before her first birthday than an African-American baby. These inequities are wrong but they’re also immoral.” Clinton was announcing a $2 billion [plan](http://time.com/4226205/clinton-to-announce-plan-to-address-school-to-prison-pipeline/) to hire social workers and staff for school districts nationwide in an attempt to tamp down on black students’ school-suspension rates and end the “school to prison” pipeline. In a jab to Sanders’ efforts to make inroads with black voters, she said, “You can’t start building relationships a few weeks before a vote.” “Race plays a significant role in determining who gets ahead in America and who gets left behind,” she said. “Anyone asking for your vote has a responsibility to grapple with this reality.” Sanders’ reality, with a little less than two weeks from South Carolina’s primary, is that he isn’t winning these voters the way Clinton is. Voters here have decades of familiarity with the Clintons, for better or for worse. With Sanders, they’re just getting to know him. Perhaps he is simply meeting the wrong ones. _— With additional reporting by Sam Frizell/Washington_ ## Transcript From Flint to North Minneapolis black, brown, and native communities have been exposed to lead poisoning, toxic incinerators, food deserts, and many other things that cause social ills because of Failures and greed of the local, federal and state government. Frontline communities like Flint are in every state in the union. That's right. Tell them. That's right. How will you ensure communities are safe from these man- made health hazards, like lead poisoning, air pollution, And food swamps before they become a national headline. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] Your point is absolutely right just to give you an example I was a couple months ago in a community In the great city of Baltimore, Maryland. I was in a city, I was in neighborhood that had no grocery stores, no grocery stores. So if you wanted to pick up some fresh produce, meat, vegetables, you couldn't do it. There were these little mom and pop stores that sold alcohol and potato chips. That's what it was. It was a community if you can believe it had no banks. It had payday lenders that charged people hundreds of interest rates of hundreds of percent. Hear this one. It's beyond belief all right. So what do we need to do But let me juts deal with a few. In terms of this payday lender stuff, which is absolutely obscene, you know every religion in the world, every religion, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, whatever religion is understands that usury is a sin. You know that, usury is a sin So I want to put these pay day lenders out of business. [ APPLAUSE ] And I'll tell you how you do it. [ APPLAUSE ] Elizabeth Warren and I have worked on an idea that says that in communities throughout America, you got postal service, you got post offices. Post offices can be involved in basic banking. You can cash a check without having to pay outrageous interest rates, you can make a small deposit. [ APPLAUSE ] But getting to your more important point. What we know is there are communities throughout this country, Predominately or most often, African American or Latino. But not always, sometimes they're white as well. Who have been poor for decades, who have never gotten the resources that they need. And I believe, that we should target, in terms of federal money, those communities that are the poorest, That have been poorest the longest and make sure that they get the assistance that they need to get themselves up on their own too feet. Sort of like reparations. Sort of like investing in the communities that need it the most. 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