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Democratic Presidential Candidates Soon to Face More Diverse Electorates

Ken Bredemeier

   Democratic presidential challengers turned their focusWednesday to the
   nexttwo partynominating contests--in the western state of Nevada and in
   thesoutheasternstate of South Carolina--in the marathon chase to pick a
   party nominee to face Republican President Donald Trump in the November
   national election.

   In bothstates,Democratic candidates will face much more racially
   diverse electorates than in either of the first nominating contests
   this month in the predominantly white, rural states of Iowa and New
   Hampshire.

   Latino and AfricanAmerican votersmake upa sizable segment of the
   electorate in Nevada, home to the country's gambling mecca of Las
   Vegas, while blacks dominate Democratic voter rolls in South Carolina.

   Only a small percentage of the delegates to July's Democratic national
   nominating convention have been picked so far. But Nevada, on
   February22, and South Carolina a week later could further winnow the
   field of candidates and at the same time sharply influence voting on
   March 3, dubbed Super Tuesday,when 14 states cast ballots, with
   hundreds of delegates at stake.

   Sanders, Buttigieg, Klobuchar

   Vermont SenatorBernie Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist,
   won Tuesday's New Hampshire party primary in the northeastern U.S.,
   edging out a more moderate Democrat, former South Bend, Indiana,Mayor
   Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gayDemocraticU.S. presidential
   candidate. Minnesota SenatorAmy Klobuchar finished third after a strong
   debate performance last week and vaulted herself into contention as a
   more moderate alternative than either Sanders or Massachusetts
   SenatorElizabeth Warren, once a Harvard law professor, who finished
   fourth.

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