The 2024 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary was held on February 3, 2024, as part of the Democratic Party primaries for the 2024 presidential election. 55 delegates to the Democratic National Convention were allocated, with 10 additional unpledged delegates. The open primary was the first officially recognized contest during the Democratic primary window. In the Republican cycle the respective primary was held three weeks later, traditionally behind Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
CNN and Associated Press called the race early, for incumbent President Joe Biden. Biden won with a turnout of 4% of registered voters, receiving no less than 94% of the vote in every county.
Scheduling
Under the Democratic Party's 2024 calendar that was released in February 2023, South Carolina was scheduled to hold the first primary on February 3, with New Hampshire and Nevada expected to hold their primaries on February 6. However, due to New Hampshire state law requiring that its primary must be held first, the state held a primary boycotted by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on January 23, which incumbent president Joe Biden won as a write-in candidate. The election marked the first time that South Carolina hosted the first primary of the Democratic nominating process supported by the DNC.
Procedure
Christale Spain, the first black woman state chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, was put in charge of running the primary. South Carolina holds open primaries, so any registered voter in the state could participate.
South Carolina chose 55 pledged delegates, with 10 additional unpledged superdelegates that participated as party leaders and officials. The pledged delegates were allocated proportionally based on the results of the primary; 36 delegates by congressional districts, and the other 12 at large. Candidates who would receive less than 15% of the vote in a congressional district or at large would not receive any delegates from that level.
Candidates
The following candidates were certified by the executive council of the South Carolina Democratic Party as candidates:
- Joe Biden
- Dean Phillips
- Marianne Williamson
Failed to make ballot
The following candidates filed, although they were not certified by the council:
- Eban Cambridge (incomplete candidate filing)
- Cenk Uygur (disqualified due to not being a natural-born citizen)
In December 2023, Uygur's campaign filed a lawsuit against the state party for rejecting his candidate filing.