Listening and watching candidates, voters, signs

By Melany Rochester, Eric Perless and Jonah Goldman • Videos by Melany Rochester

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Wash staff fanned out across greater Columbia the morning of Feb. 29 to talk to voters and listen to last-minute contenders to be the Democratic nominee. Here’s what we found:

NPR reporter: What makes Warren different?

Danielle Kurtzleben, an NPR Politics Reporter, talks to American University students about how Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has talked about race in her presidential campaign. Kurtzleben told us that Warren is “somewhat unique” compared to all of the candidates and that, “she really does weave race and also often gender into her policies.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Canvass

Presidential contender Elizabeth Warren spoke to her supporters at canvassing event on the morning of the presidential primary election in South Carolina. Warren tried to inspire and energize her supporters in Columbia, speaking to more than 50 people at the Eau Claire Print Building in Columbia.

Warren: Why she’s staying in the race

Sen. Elizabeth Warren held a press conference after her Canvass Launch the morning of the First-in-the-South presidential primary election on Feb. 29, 2020. During the conference, she answered only five questions, one of which was, “how long do you continue in this race” — a question she has been asked more and more as her polling numbers drop. Warren said that she “made a decision when she got in this race that she wouldn’t do two things: I wouldn’t do polls and I wouldn’t do predictions.” She talked about how she is committed to the race and fighting alongside her supporters,  saying that she thinks, “This is how we build a movement around the nation.”

South Carolinian Voter: Why Bernie?

This morning, we spoke to voters in Lower Richland County to hear how they voted during South Carolina’s presidential primary election. George Coles III, a 35-year-old machine operator from Eastover, South Carolina, talks about why he voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders. We spoke with him an hour after the polls opened and his vote was one of the first 35 votes at the precinct at Lower Richland High School. Coles told TheWash: “I voted for Bernie because I really feel as though he’s the candidate that bridges that gap between the older generation and the younger generation.”

South Carolina student Ke’Andre Camang: Why get involved in politics?

We spoke with Ke’Andre Camang, a 17-year-old high school student who has been canvassing for Tom Steyer’s campaign. Camang is from Sumter, South Carolina, and was stationed on election morning at the precinct at Horrell Hill Elementary School. He told us that if he could vote, he would vote for Steyer or former vice president Joe Biden. He discussed the importance of getting politically involved, and said, “politics control our lives, essentially, so the more I can talk to people and get them involved in politics and campaigns is a happy feeling for me.”