Black voters in South Carolina confirmed that there is a huge generational gap when it comes to their support for Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders that should shape predictions about where this crucial voting bloc may go in future Democratic contests.
While Biden beat Sanders among black voters over 60 by a whopping 77% to 8%, that gap narrowed to just 40% to 36% among black voters aged 17 to 29. (Anybody who will be 18 by Election Day was allowed to vote in the primary.) On a net basis, that’s an incredible 65-point differential. Luckily for Biden, in South Carolina, the older contingent was more than three times as large. So overall, Biden claimed 64% of the black vote, which made up the majority of the electorate.
Another factor to consider is religious attendance. My colleague Tim Carney, who has been reporting from South Carolina, wrote about the conservative disposition of black voters there that made them more skeptical of the radical message of Sanders. Though the exit polls do not break religious observance by race, they did find that overall, among those who attended religious services at least weekly, Biden beat Sanders 59% to 14%.
This was obviously a huge night for the former vice president, but the generational and religious attendance gap suggests that there is some room for Sanders to narrow Biden’s edge among black voters in states and congressional districts where the black electorate is proportionally younger and less religious than it was in South Carolina.
Though Sanders might not ever be able to beat Biden among black voters overall, anywhere he could narrow the gap will make a difference as the race moves to Super Tuesday and beyond.
