COLUMBIA, S.C. — Facing fresh campaign anxieties, Hillary Clinton is seeking to shore up her standing with African-American voters who helped make Barack Obama the first black president and who could determine her fate if she falters in the first-to-vote contests of Iowa and New Hampshire.
In the Democratic debate in Charleston Sunday night and on the campaign trail Monday, Clinton vowed to continue the work of Obama, her one-time rival and boss. She, chief rival Bernie Sanders, and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the steps of the South Carolina State House. The event was replete with Obama’s influence: As Clinton’s two main challengers marched to the capitol, hundreds of faithful chanted the president’s campaign mantra, ‘‘Fired Up. Ready to Go!’’
‘‘[King] was counting on all of us to keep going after he was gone, to be a part of what President Obama calls the ‘Joshua Generation,’ carrying forward the holy work the heroes of the civil rights movement began,’’ Clinton said.
Clinton’s alignment with Obama, who remains popular with Democrats, was on full display Sunday in the final debate before the Iowa caucuses.
Presenting herself as his heir-apparent, Clinton warned that Sanders’ universal health care plan threatened to reopen a contentious debate with Republicans that could undermine the law.
Sanders countered that his ‘‘Medicare for all’’ proposal was the natural evolution to the health care law, reminding Clinton that he played a role in its passage.
Clinton aides said Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist who casts himself as above politics as usual, was undermining Obama’s achievements by questioning the effectiveness of his party.
The rhetoric was a notable shift from several months ago, when Clinton frequently stressed that she was not running for Obama’s third term.
Republicans are taking careful note of the new strategy and hope to use Clinton’s ties to Obama to undercut her with skeptical independents in the general election, should she win the nominations.
Sanders’ team says there’s little daylight between the Vermont senator and Obama, with one major difference.
‘‘There’s only one candidate on that stage who ran against Barack Obama for president and it wasn’t Bernie Sanders,’’ said Tad Devine, a top Sanders adviser.
Sanders seeks to capitalize on strong finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire to propel him in the two remaining contests in February: Nevada and South Carolina. Polls show Clinton with a big lead in South Carolina, helped by black voters, but the state’s electorate has shifted in the past based on the outcome in the early voting.