Democratic candidates court South Carolina's black voters
Four of the two dozen Democrats vying for the party's 2020 US presidential nomination will appear at a Black Economic Alliance forum in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday, with an eye on the key role black voters will play in the early-voting state.
South Carolina, which will host the fourth nominating contest next year, will be the first state where a significant proportion of the Democratic electorate - about 60 percent - is black. In a crowded Democratic field, the candidates are aiming for strong performances to show their messages resonate with black voters in the state and in nominating contests across the US South.
They also want to generate enthusiasm for their candidacies in the November general election against President Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee. Democrat Hillary Clinton's stunning loss to Trump in 2016 was in part attributed to a decline in black voter turnout for the first time in 20 years. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, former US Representative Beto O'Rourke and US Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren will be in attendance on Saturday.
