CHARLESTON, S.C. — In the small pastor's study of the Morris Brown African Methodist Episcopal church, the Rev. Joseph A. Darby has already received visits in the last few months from Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) has telephoned. Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) sent a postcard.
Did Darby mention that South Carolina has moved up the date of its Democratic presidential primary next year to Feb. 3, one week after the first primary in New Hampshire?
He doesn't have to. "We're getting schmoozed," he said with a smile.
In the process, Darby and other African American activists in the state are changing the dynamics of the Democratic presidential race.
For decades, the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary have dominated the initial phase of the presidential campaign, giving the two virtually all-white states enormous power to winnow the field to the final contenders.
But South Carolina is positioned to become the first state in years with a large black population to influence the Democratic race during the opening stage.
That means the ability to mobilize African American voters -- a skill critical to the party's hopes in any general election -- could become a more prominent test on the road to the nomination as well. Anywhere from one-third to half of the South Carolina Democratic primary vote will be black, local analysts predict.
"In my memory, we haven't had a state with this large an African American population this close to the front" of the nominating process, said Bill Carrick, a Los Angeles-based Democratic strategist who advises Gephardt.
South Carolina's importance has emerged in a year when the competition for African American votes in the Democratic primary is as wide-open as it has been since at least 1976. Black leaders agree that none of the Democrats seeking the presidential nomination begins with an obvious political advantage among African American voters.
"There is no [dominant] claim on the black community that can be made by any one of these candidates," said Rep. James E. Clyburn, a Democrat who is the state's most prominent African American politician.
With so many states crowding to the front of the campaign calendar, South Carolina won't have the Feb. 3 spotlight to itself. Its primary will be joined by contests in Arizona and Missouri, and possibly several others.
