As voting gets under way in South Carolina's Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton is hoping to draw on her support among black voters to secure a resounding victory over Senator Bernie Sanders.
A victory in Saturday's poll would be an emotional boost for her White House campaign after an up-and-down start to the 2016 nominating contests, as well as a chance to wipe away the fraught memories of her 2008 primary loss in the state.
"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 on Friday during a rally in Columbia.
A victory here would also establish Clinton as the firm favourite among black voters, a crucial segment of the Democratic electorate, and set her up for a big delegate haul in next week's Super Tuesday contests in the South.
A Democratic candidate needs 2383 delegates to win the nomination and the 11-state voting bonanza on March 1 accounts for 865 of those.
On the Republican side, voters will cast ballots in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake.
Sanders knows his prospects with South Carolina's heavily black Democratic electorate are grim.
A longtime lawmaker from Vermont, where just about 1 per cent of the population is black, Sanders lacks Clinton's deep and longstanding connections to the African-American community.
He's tried to broaden his economic inequality message and touch on issues such as incarceration rates and criminal justice reform, but he has still struggled to gain traction in South Carolina.
Rather than devote precious time to a state he's prepared to lose, Sanders has spent much of the past week in areas that vote in March.
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