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Marianne Williamson, the self-help writer now on her second long-shot run for president, appeared to complete forward of Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota within the South Carolina Democratic major on Saturday, inching previous the candidate who has up to now been President Biden’s most vital, albeit distant, rival.
With 97 p.c of votes counted, Ms. Williamson has 2.1 p.c and Mr. Phillips has 1.7 p.c. While the race is an amazing victory for Mr. Biden — with greater than 96 p.c — it’s nonetheless probably the most assist Ms. Williamson has obtained in an official Democratic major. She ended her 2020 marketing campaign weeks earlier than the Iowa caucuses.
Ms. Williamson’s very distant second-place end is a big blow to Mr. Phillips. His marketing campaign spent about $4.6 million within the final three months of 2023, and he lent it $4 million of his personal cash, in accordance with a submitting with the Federal Election Commission.
Mr. Phillips had tried to set very low expectations for his efficiency in South Carolina. He projected on social media on Friday that Mr. Biden “ought to get 95 p.c of the vote in South Carolina.” His forecast was not far off.
Mr. Phillips appeared to take his third-place end on Saturday in stride. “Cracking 4 digits by no means felt so good!” he wrote on social media, referring to the roughly 1,400 votes he had on the time. (He completed with some 2,200.) He added: “Congratulations, Mr. President, on a very good quaint whooping. See you in Michigan.”
Both of Mr. Biden’s challengers appeared occasionally at marketing campaign occasions in South Carolina, although Ms. Williamson started visiting the state almost a 12 months in the past, and Mr. Phillips made his first journey after becoming a member of the race in November.
The Post and Courier reported that at one occasion final month in Columbia, S.C., employees members with Mr. Phillips’s marketing campaign feared attendance wouldn’t be excessive sufficient to justify the variety of chairs that they had arrange. They organized a smaller quantity in a circle for the ten individuals who finally confirmed up. “This appears like a séance,” Mr. Phillips mentioned when he walked into the room.
He put considerably extra effort into campaigning in New Hampshire, the place he hoped for an upset efficiency that might have given him momentum within the race. He completed with lower than 20 p.c of the vote, shedding overwhelmingly to Mr. Biden, who was not, in truth, on the poll.
Still, he beat Ms. Williamson by greater than 15 factors.
