Washington: Hillary Clinton hopes to consolidate her position as the Democratic presidential frontrunner with a landslide victory over rival Bernie Sanders in the South Carolina primary elections ahead of the crucial "Super Tuesday" next week.
Eyeing to become the first woman president of the US, the 68-year-old former Secretary of State has an impressive 27 points lead over Sanders, 74, from Vermont.
At the national level, her lead over Sanders is now less than six %. Clinton leads in the delegate count after winning two of the first three states to vote -- in Iowa, narrowly, and then in Nevada.
In South Carolina, where 55 per cent of voters in the 2008 Democratic primary were African-American, polls show Clinton is favoured to win - that could wipe away the memories of her 2008 primary loss in the state.
She is campaigning for a landslide victory in South Carolina's Democratic primary, while Sanders is already looking ahead to Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois and beyond.
Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton, the former US President, along with their daughter Chelsie have spent the last few days in South Carolina, where she is highly popular.
"The South Carolina primary is personally important to me because I want to send a strong signal that South Carolina is ready for change, ready for progress, ready to make a difference," Clinton said yesterday during a rally in Columbia.
"Tomorrow, folks in South Carolina will head to the polls, and we'll be well on our way to Super Tuesday," the former top
American diplomat said in an email to her supporters.
On the eve of the South Carolina primary, a poll by Gallup said that among Democrats, Clinton has an advantage of 11 points over Sanders.
"Hillary Clinton has reclaimed her position as the best- liked presidential candidate among Democrats and independents
who lean Democratic, a sign that her candidacy is recovering a key advantage she recently surrendered to rival Bernie Sanders," Gallup said.
Clinton's supports hoped that South Carolina would seal her position as the Democratic frontrunner.
"If Sanders doesn't do better with African-Americans in South Carolina than he did in Nevada, he's going to have a terrible night," Mo Elleithee, a Democratic strategist who worked on her 2008 campaign, was quoted as saying by USA Today.
This week, Clinton attended at least 10 events in the State having addressed rallies every day since Tuesday. During the same period, Sanders addressed just three rallies.
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