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Seven Democratic Candidates to Debate in South Carolina

VOA News

   Seven candidates for the Democratic Party's nomination in the U.S.
   presidential race take to the debate stage Tuesday night in the
   southern state of South Carolina.

   Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has the momentum of a resounding victory
   in Saturday's Nevada caucuses, along with a lead in the overall count
   of delegates that candidates need to amass in order to be selected as
   the Democrat to go up against President Donald Trump in November.

   Front-runner status can make a candidate a target for the others in the
   debate, but public opinion polls in South Carolina may turn some of
   that focus on former Vice President Joe Biden.

   Biden sits third in the delegate count after scoring a second-place
   finish in Nevada -- his best so far since voters began having their say
   this month. Polls show him as the favorite in South Carolina, several
   points ahead of Sanders.

   Polling also points to a potential opportunity for billionaire Tom
   Steyer to have his moment in the Democratic race with a level of
   support he has not yet seen. Yet to win a single delegate, polls showed
   him third in South Carolina, ahead of former South Bend, Indiana Mayor
   Pete Buttigieg, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Minnesota
   Senator Amy Klobuchar.

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