Kamala Harris strengthens Biden for 2024 and lays the foundation for 2028

For decades, ambitious politicians eyeing a future presidential candidate made pilgrimages to Iowa and New Hampshire, casually walking into trade shows and local fundraising dinners as if they happened to be in the area.

When President Biden pushed Democrats to put South Carolina first in their presidential primaries, the geography of the party's political warriors changed. They are now working to build support not in predominantly white northern places, but in a southern state with a predominantly black primary voting base that better represents the modern Democratic Party.

So when Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Orangeburg, S.C., on Friday for her ninth visit to South Carolina since taking office, she came as a known quantity. As she and Mr. Biden run for renomination without serious challengers, the relationships she has developed in the state are expected to play a role in powering their ticket to a comfortable victory Saturday in the party's first recognized primary .

Ms. Harris' trip, as well as an ongoing college tour to defend abortion rights and promote the Democratic agenda, also served two larger purposes: working to amplify Mr. Biden's continued vulnerability with black voters and young voters, and retaining the first woman and first woman of color to serve as vice president at the forefront for the next presidential contest in 2028.

Perhaps the most influential Democrat in South Carolina is already on board with Ms. Harris as a future candidate for the White House.

“I made it very clear months ago that I support her,” said Representative James E. Clyburn, whose 2020 endorsement of Mr. Biden before his state's primaries helped revive the former vice president's struggling campaign and get him to the nomination. “That's why we had to re-elect the ticket. Then you talk about viability afterwards.”

Ms. Harris, who ended her 2020 presidential campaign months before the South Carolina primary, has sought to deepen her ties here.

“There is an unspoken language between the vice president and African-American women in this state,” said Trav Robertson, former chair of the Democratic Party of South Carolina. “They don't have to go into a room and say things — because they already know they have a shared experience.”

Ms. Harris was part of a parade of Biden campaign surrogates who have descended on South Carolina to battle for the president in a primary whose outcome is hardly in dispute. Mr. Biden's competition includes Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who is little known and has spent nothing on television advertising in the state, and the self-help author Marianne Williamson, who received minimal support in the New Hampshire primary even without Mr. Biden . the mood.

No one has energized voters in South Carolina more than Ms. Harris, who has been positioned as a natural successor to Mr. Biden but has tended not to appear at the top of Democratic wish lists for 2028 presidential candidates. On Friday in Orangeburg, S.C., she met with a group of local pastors, some of whom she has long-standing relationships with; stood in front of a photo line with supporters of her 2020 campaign; and spoke at a final rally before the primaries.

Her local connections were obvious. Jaime Harrison, an Orangeburg native and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called her “our MVP.” Mr. Clyburn affectionately called her “my girl” from the stage.

“In 2020, it was South Carolina that put President Joe Biden and me on the path to the White House,” she told the crowd. “It is because of that work that Joe Biden is president of the United States and I am the first woman and the first Black woman to become vice president of the United States.”

The Biden campaign has hired a local staff of four and encouraged visits from supportive politicians ranging from the well-known (California Gov. Gavin Newsom) to the somewhat well-known (Mitch Landrieu, the former New Orleans mayor) to the little-known ( Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis of Pennsylvania).

Mr. Davis spent Wednesday stumping for Mr. Biden at six stops in South Carolina. Mr. Davis, who is only 34 and black, has volunteered his time for the campaign to pitch its message to young black men — an audience that polls show is skeptical about supporting the president.

Mr. Davis acknowledged in an interview that he was a new face in South Carolina.

“By the end of my speech I had a lot of fans,” he said. “I think they said, 'Oh, we're glad you showed up. We had no idea who you were, but we're glad you showed up. ''

Some surrogates have tried to motivate Democratic voters by warning that Republicans pose a threat to them. Speaking to black voters in Ridgeland, S.C., on Tuesday, Mr. Landrieu alluded to “rhetoric” on the right that sometimes includes racist messages.

'You're from the South. You hear those dogs whistling like a train coming down the track,” he said. “Some people say they want to make America great again. I have news for you: America is already great.”

“It always was like that,” a woman from the crowd shouted back.

The push to boost Ms. Harris' political prospects extends beyond her efforts to curry favor with voters who are likely to have a major influence on the choice of the 2028 Democratic nominee.

Democratic fundraising giant Emily's List, which works to elect women who support abortion rights, has said it will spend tens of millions of dollars this year to defend and promote Ms. Harris.

The group sees her success as an important extension of its mission to elevate more Democratic women to public office. The organization will be joined by other groups, including the National Women's Law Center, as they prepare to act as campaign watchdogs, ready to denounce sexist and racist attacks against Ms. Harris.

Emily's List polls last year showed Ms. Harris with high approval ratings among key parts of the Democratic coalition, including black women, younger voters and college graduates. Yet she remained relatively unknown to many.

About a third of Democratic and independent voters, the group's poll found, did not know her personal story, her background as California's attorney general and junior senator, or what she had done as vice president.

Senator Laphonza Butler of California, who headed Emily's List before Mr. Newsom appointed her to fill the seat vacated when Senator Dianne Feinstein died last year, said the hectic nature of the 2020 general election, which was dominated the pandemic , had limited opportunities for Ms. Harris to connect with voters nationally.

“She has yet to introduce herself to the country,” Ms Butler said. “People just don't know anything about her because she didn't get the chance to tell her story.”

But most immediately, Ms. Harris and the Biden team are focused on achieving a large margin of victory in South Carolina.

Local Democrats have urged their supporters, who are free to choose which primaries they vote in, to cast their ballots in the Democratic race and not wait for the Republican election later this month. Some may consider strategically backing Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, in her long-running battle against former President Donald J. Trump.

Clay Middleton, a veteran Democratic operative and senior adviser to Mr. Biden's team in the state, said the campaign had not told him what the goal of voter turnout was.

He did say that the campaign's strategy of sending surrogates like Mr. Newsom and Mr. Landrieu to remote rural towns was an effort to boost turnout in counties that often underperform in state elections.

“Those counties rarely get high-level surrogates,” Mr. Middleton said. “These surrogates spent time there connecting with people.”

Even though the Biden campaign has studiously avoided making predictions about Saturday turnout, Mr. Clyburn on Friday set the benchmark for success at 150,000 to 200,000 votes, with the president getting 70 to 75 percent of those.

“Seventy percent would be a success for me,” he said in an interview.

In 2016, when Hillary Clinton defeated Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, just over 371,000 people voted. In 2020, with no competitive Republican primaries but twelve Democrats on the ballot in a race that was still up for grabs, about 537,000 people voted. South Carolina did not hold a primary in 2012, when President Barack Obama sought reelection and no Democrats filed to run against him in the state.

JA Moore, a Democratic state representative in South Carolina and one of the first officials in the state to support Ms. Harris' 2020 presidential campaign, said her frequent visits as vice president had served as a “testing ground” to build relationships to build with parts of the state. the party's base – black voters, young people and women – who were crucial to Biden's 2020 general election winning coalition.

“She has built real, connected relationships here, particularly in the black community, but also with women and young people,” Mr Moore said. “Just showing up in certain places goes a long way.”

Lisa Lerer reporting contributed.