The primaries are a preview of Hillary's problems in the general election

Young­er voters across the coun­try have out­right re­belled against the pro­spect of a Clin­ton dyn­asty. Sanders won a whop­ping 84 per­cent of un­der-30s in Iowa, 83 per­cent in New Hamp­shire, and 82 per­cent in Nevada. Mil­len­ni­als were a crit­ic­al com­pon­ent in Obama’s vic­tor­ies, cast­ing aside their slack­er repu­ta­tions to turn out in re­cord num­bers in sup­port of the pres­id­ent. Without Trump as a nom­in­ee, however, it’s very hard to see Clin­ton com­ing close to match­ing Obama’s rap­port among this core Demo­crat­ic con­stitu­ency.

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Mean­while, des­pite her cam­paign’s best ef­forts to rally His­pan­ics by pas­sion­ately ad­voc­at­ing for im­mig­ra­tion re­form, there’s little sign that they’re fol­low­ing suit. Clin­ton’s cam­paign is prob­ably right that they won the His­pan­ic vote in the Nevada caucuses, even with (flawed) en­trance polls show­ing a nar­row Sanders win. But she shouldn’t be cel­eb­rat­ing too much. A nar­row win over Sanders among His­pan­ic voters is hardly an en­cour­aging sign, since Clin­ton over­whelm­ingly won their sup­port in 2008 (64-26 per­cent over Obama) and has been much more out­spoken on im­mig­ra­tion than Sanders.

South Car­o­lina will provide a cru­cial test for Clin­ton among the most im­port­ant part of the Obama co­ali­tion: Afric­an-Amer­ic­ans. She’s ex­pec­ted to eas­ily win the state thanks to strong sup­port from black voters. But if turnout badly lags in the state, it’s a sign that she’s not gen­er­at­ing the en­thu­si­asm she’ll need with them in Novem­ber. And if she struggles to win sup­port from young­er black voters, it’s a sign that the Black Lives Mat­ter act­iv­ists are just as con­sequen­tial as the old-guard lead­er­ship back­ing her en masse.

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