The reluctance to consider candidates other than Biden was borne out in interviews with dozens of black voters in South Carolina over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, and is confirmed in polling. Time and again, African American voters said it isn’t that they don’t like Sanders or Warren. But they know what they’re getting with Biden, who has a relationship and familiarity with black voters, especially older black voters, that extend beyond his time as Barack Obama’s No. 2. And they’re wary that the two progressives can deliver the sweeping remake of the government they’re selling…

“Black people are rightfully suspicious of things they don’t know, so that’s why name recognition becomes critical,” Mac said after the encounter. So she asks people: “Do you want more of the same or do you want to dream bigger than what we have?”

But battling Biden’s name ID isn’t easy. And the air of inevitability around Biden is based largely on the collective knowledge that he is far and away the leading candidate with black South Carolinians.

Antonio Robinson, 42, who works in education and lives in Goose Creek, wants to vote for Andrew Yang, but he’s come to accept that Biden is a foregone conclusion in South Carolina.