SPARTANBURG, S.C. ā Billionaires are the consistent villains in Bernie Sanders' campaign narrative. He rails against what he perceives as the undue influence their wealth wields and how that contributes to the yawning inequalities of American life.
His criticisms are unsparing, and his most recent target is Mike Bloomberg, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination and one of the world's richest people.
Recommended Videos
But another billionaire in the race, Tom Steyer, has largely escaped Sanders' wrath. And perhaps with good reason: It could well be Steyer who helps propel Sanders to success in the crucial state of South Carolina.
Steyer's aggressive courtship of black voters in the state, coupled with tens of millions of dollars in advertising, has put him in a surprisingly strong position that could siphon support from former Vice President Joe Biden. That would create a lane for Sanders that undercuts Biden's case that South Carolina will be his electoral firewall.
Over the past few weeks, Steyer has largely had South Carolina to himself, as the most of the other candidates focused on New Hampshire and Nevada. Most of the field, including Biden and Sanders, attended a march and rally in Columbia on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Sanders hasnāt returned since, and Biden made a brief, last-minute stop the night of the New Hampshire primary.
Early polls showed Biden with a commanding lead in South Carolina, particularly among the black voters who make up as much as two-thirds of its Democratic electorate. Biden also has compiled the most endorsements from black lawmakers and other officials.
Michael Bailey, a spokesman for the Democratic Black Caucus of South Carolina, said Bidenās stout presence may have led some campaigns to think they had no path to victory in the state.
āA lot of the other candidates assumed that Biden had it wrapped up, so weāre not going to put our resources there. Weāre going to battle in other states and try to make up,ā Bailey said.
But Sanders has had a presence in the state since his previous campaign in 2016: an existing infrastructure from Our Revolution, a super PAC that supports him, providing a ready-made organization. In late 2018, thousands turned out to see Sanders at Our Revolutionās āMedicare for Allā rally in Columbia. Each month, the group schedules meetings and has a presence at events throughout the state.
Since launching his 2020 bid, Sanders has held campaign events in rarely visited, lower-income communities and, as many candidates have done, spoken in black churches on Sundays.
āWhat Iāve come to understand is that he's someone who fights social injustice,ā said state Rep. Ivory Thigpen, an African American legislator who is backing Sanders. āAnd fighting for social injustices is in the DNA of African Americans. ā¦ My mama said a long time ago, ārealā crosses all barriers.ā
Sanders is also getting help from an unexpected source: Republicans. Last month, a group of GOP leaders from South Carolina's upstate region announced a push to encourage fellow Republicans to cross over and support Sanders in the Democratic primary. It was an effort to boost the candidate they see as the weakest general election matchup with President Donald Trump.
But Sandersā biggest help may be Steyer's money. He has spent more than $60 million on ads in the state and has doled out more than $300,000 to support Democratic Parties at the state and county levels, according to his campaign, and has also forged inroads particularly in the black community. On Monday, a fifth member of the Legislative Black Caucus officially endorsed Steyer. Two others, including the caucus chair, are on his campaignās payroll as senior advisers.
Some of that support, said one longtime state lawmaker, can be seen as cutting into Bidenās appeal to moderate black voters, a move that could be making room for Sandersā more progressive backers.
āI think that he's creating space for others and narrowing the lane,ā said state Sen. Gerald Malloy, an unaffiliated member of South Carolinaās Legislative Black Caucus. "Tom Steyer has the willingness to reach out to minority voters in ways that other candidates can't or haven't."
For Bailey, Steyerās candidacy was garnering more support than just from disaffected Biden supporters.
āI donāt think itās just that heās taking votes away from the vice president ā heās taking votes from everybody, and heās bringing new voters to the polls," he said.
Some of Steyerās efforts have been unconventional. His wife, Kat Taylor, recently rented a home in Columbia, where she has hosted several open houses and plans to use as an East Coast base of operations as long as her husband is in the presidential race.
āI've said from the beginning, if you want to be a Democratic candidate for president, you've got to appeal to everybody across the country, and you've got to appeal to the diverse Democratic Party coalition,ā Steyer said after a campaign block party earlier this month in Winnsboro, a small, central South Carolina town. āSouth Carolina has a big African American population, it's a critical state, and so it's really important to anybody who cares about the Democratic Party and wants to represent this party.ā
But part of the appeal, said both Malloy and Charles Steele, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is also issue-based, in no small part because of Steyerās repeated mentions of his support both for reparations and for funding for historically black colleges and universities. For Steele, Steyer's motivation to take on such topics seemed to be driven by a force more powerful than politics.
"To hear Mr. Steyer talk about HBCUs, and to talk about reparations, is something that's divinely said, that came from heaven,ā said Steele, who says he isnāt officially endorsing Steyer but has appeared on the campaign trail with him in South Carolina. āHe didn't say that from flesh and blood because many people run from that issue.ā
With less than two weeks until the primary, voters are taking note. Waiting on Steyer at an environmental justice event on Monday, Malina Butler, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of South Carolina-Upstate, said she had initially been a supporter of Sanders, whose candidacy she saw as exciting, but without the substance she wants.
"I like the crowd and hype, but at the end of the day, I still need to know who you are," Butler said.
Told about Steyer by her mother, who is āall inā for his candidacy, Butler said she wasnāt really interested in Biden, saying it wasnāt enough just to have served with President Barack Obama.
āPeople my age, they like him because he was with Obama, and I feel like that's not really saying much,ā she said.
Johnnie Cordero, the chairman of the Democratic Black Caucus of South Carolina and a Steyer supporter, said this week that what he sees as Steyerās momentum shows that candidates shouldnāt be taking any support for granted.
āAnybody who comes into South Carolina thinking that they have the vote is in for a rude awakening ā and we know who that refers to,ā he said.
___
Associated Press writer Tom Foreman Jr. contributed to this report from Columbia, S.C.
___
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
___
Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, āGround Game.ā