Former Vice President Joe Biden erased the bad taste of distant finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire by swamping the opposition in the South Carolina Primary on Saturday night, knocking out one rival, imperiling the campaigns of several others, and putting himself back in the middle of the race for the Democratic nomination for the White House.
"You launched Bill Clinton, Barack Obama to the Presidency," Biden said of past South Carolina Primary choices by Democrats in 1992 and 2008.
"Now you launched our campaign on the path to beating Donald Trump," Biden said to a huge roar at his election headquarters.
Speaking directly to voters in fourteen states who will cast ballots on Super Tuesday, Biden appealed for them to coalesce around his candidacy.
"This is the moment to choose the path forward for our party," Biden said. "This is the moment and it's arrived, maybe sooner than anyone guessed it would."
The final results were not close, as Biden won almost half the vote, Sanders was just under twenty percent, and the former Vice President was winning about three-quarters of the 54 delegates at stake.
Bernie Sanders was the only other candidate to take delegates, keeping him just ahead of Biden in the overall delegate race.
Tom Steyer finished third, but was short of the 15 percent threshold for delegates, as Steyer quickly announced that he would end his bid for the White House.
Steyer had pumped millions of his own money into South Carolina, focusing extensively on black voters - but was unable to break through.
Meanwhile, the results were even more of a disappointment for Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar, who finished a distant fourth, fifth and sixth place.
Warren has not won any delegates since Iowa.
"I’ll be the first to say that the first four contests haven’t gone exactly as I’d hoped," Warren said at a campaign stop in Texas, which votes on Super Tuesday.
The win prompted a series of endorsements for Biden from top Democratic Party officials in Virginia, as the Biden team hoped to quickly capitalize in a number of states voting on Super Tuesday - March 3.
At his victory party, Biden was introduced by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), a powerful black lawmaker whose endorsement seemed to create a wave of support starting on Wednesday.
“My buddy Jim Clyburn, you brought me back!” Biden exclaimed, as he thanked the Palmetto State.
“The days of Donald Trump's divisiveness will soon be over,” Biden told the crowd to big cheers.
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