COLUMBIA - Hillary Clinton has resoundingly reclaimed her standing as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination with a lopsided victory in South Carolina.

And it's a win over Bernie Sanders that doubles as a strong send off toward Super Tuesday.

For Sanders, the roughly 50-point defeat on Saturday crystalizes his weakness with black voters - a crucial segment of the Democratic electorate.

If he loses blacks by similar margins in the Southern states that vote Tuesday, Clinton would likely take a delegate lead difficult for him to overcome.

Like GOP front-runner Donald Trump, Clinton has won three of the four early voting contests. Trump is engaged in an increasingly bitter contest with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, two senators scrambling to stop him from running away with the GOP nomination.