In South Carolina, Black voters are split on immigration

In the 2020 primary, Biden won 70% of Orangeburg, South Carolina, an hour north of Charleston (pictured here). Today, the Orangeburg mayor says he would expect Biden to close the border upon a second term. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Republicans claim that their election-year rhetoric about immigration has a new audience in Black communities. North Charleston’s newfound racial complexity tests that claim.

The working-class city of about 120,000 people is one of the most strongly Democratic in South Carolina, more so even than Charleston, its larger, storied neighbor to its south. It has also long been split almost evenly between Black and white residents. Immigration has been adding a third dimension to what was a two-way relationship.