Populist message woos S.C. voters

Local candidate John Edwards got the win he needed Tuesday, thanks to strong support among independents and working-class Democrats and John Kerry's inability to turn an endorsement from South Carolina's highest-ranking black official into a solid block of black support.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who campaigned more than anyone else in South Carolina, finished a distant third.

In unofficial results, with 93 percent of precincts reporting, Edwards received 46 percent of the vote, compared with 30 percent for Kerry and 10 percent for the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Edwards was clearly the favorite on the Grand Strand, as well. With 100 percent reporting in Horry County, Edwards had about 51 percent of the vote, with Kerry second at 29 percent and Clark third at 7 percent. In Georgetown, the top three were slightly different. Voters there also strongly backed Edwards, awarding him 44 percent of the vote. Kerry got 30 percent, followed by Sharpton with 10 percent.

Voters and political observers said his populist message - Edwards talked repeatedly on the stump about his mill town upbringing and promised to unite what he termed the "Two Americas" - was especially effective in a state that has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.

An Associated Press exit poll showed that one out of every four voters identified themselves as independents, and half of those unaffiliated voters chose Edwards.

"John Edwards appealed to people who have been voting Republican on social issues, he appealed to them on economic issues," said Columbia Mayor Bob Coble, an Edwards supporter. "He won with exactly the kind of voters we are going to need to win over in the fall, the kinds of voters the Democratic Party has had trouble keeping in the past."

About 200,000 people voted Tuesday, which dawned gray and foggy but turned sunny later across much of the Palmetto State. That number was almost double South Carolina's last Democratic presidential primary, in 1992, but well less than the total in the 2000 Republican presidential primary.

This was supposed to be a key step on the road to the Democratic nomination, the first primary in the South and the first in which contenders had to woo black voters.

But when U.S. Rep. Dick Richard Gephardt dropped out of the race two weeks ago, his home state of Missouri suddenly became a battleground, and South Carolina lost some of its importance. Beyond last week's Greenville debate and a Columbia forum hosted by radio personality Tom Joyner, the candidates largely were absent in the final days. Edwards and Sharpton were the only ones who actually spent primary day in South Carolina. Sharpton visited more than 30 times in the past ½year and a half, making regular appearances at black churches.

Toni James, a Sharpton volunteer, said she was elated by her candidate's finish. She was among several supporters who said third place was good enough.

"Nobody can get a message through like Reverend Sharpton," James said at Sharpton's celebration at a Columbia hotel. "When he preaches, they listen; and obviously, they did."

However, early returns suggested that Sharpton failed to win the 15 percent of the vote needed to capture any delegates to the Democratic National Convention. "I love Al Sharpton, but I just could not throw my vote away," said Edward Robinson, a 72-year-old Orangeburg County voter who cast his ballot for Edwards. "This is all about beating Bush."

Black voters were expected to be a major factor in the primary, and exit polls suggested that they made up almost 50 percent of the vote.

Edwards and Kerry appeared to split the black vote, according to exit polls, even though Kerry had the endorsement of the state's best-known black leader, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.

The Massachusetts senator only became a serious candidate here after his win in New Hampshire a week ago.

"It got him some attention, but it wasn't such a power that it pushed Kerry over the top," Clemson University professor Bruce Ransom said.

"What's clear is that all of South Carolina responded to Edwards, not only as a native son, but because he was clearly talking about the issues people wanted to hear: jobs and the economy."

In Columbia, Tuesday night, Edwards drove the eight blocks from his campaign headquarters to a rousing victory party at Jillian's night club.

A broad smile beaming across his tired face, Edwards plowed through the crowd shaking hands, hugging and kissing as supporters pressed to get close.

"It's a long way from that little house in Seneca, South Carolina," he said, referring to the home where his family lived when he was born that was featured in one of his commercials.

Edwards said his victory shows that "everything is possible."

And he repeated a pledge he made in his campaign stop in Georgetown on Sunday: If the people let him run against George Bush, "I will give them back the White House."