Stunning stats explain how Hillary Clinton obliterated Bernie Sanders in South Carolina

Pamela EngelREUTERS/Randall HillHillary Clinton speaks about the results of the South Carolina primary to supporters at a primary night party in Columbia, South Carolina.Hillary Clinton on Saturday scored a blowout victory over rival Bernie Sanders in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday.

Clinton was on her way to beat Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, by a very large margin in the state. With 98% of precincts reporting, Clinton had taken more than 73% of the vote.
Exit polls showed how she built her impressive victory: Clinton won big with black voters (at an even bigger clip than Barack Obama in 2008) and older voters. She also did well with less-educated voters and people who make less than $30,000 a year.
Sanders had a good showing with young people, who comprise his main voting base. But Clinton swept every county in the state.

Here are some of the notable results from exit polls, according to CNN:

• Clinton did well with men as well as women. She won an overwhelming share of both the male and female vote — 68% of men and 79% of women voted for her. But women comprised a much larger share of South Carolina primary voters — 39% of voters were men, and 61% were women.
• Sanders won with young people — albeit by a smaller margin than in other states. Among voters between the ages of 17 and 29, 51% voted for Sanders and 46% voted for Clinton. Sanders also won big among first-time voters — 63% of first-time voters went with Sanders, while 83% of people who had voted in a primary before went with Clinton.
• Clinton did well with older voters. Clinton won by 75% or more with voters between ages 30 and 64, and she won 89% of voters aged 65 or older.
• Clinton won big with black voters. She won 87% of the black vote — a higher percentage than what President Barack Obama won in South Carolina in 2008.
• Clinton had strong support across all education levels, but did particularly well among less-educated voters. She won 87% of voters with a high school education or less, and 69% of voters with undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. She won 77% of voters with no college degree. Clinton and Sanders split the vote among white college graduates.
• Clinton also did well with low-income voters. She won 82% of voters who earn less than $30,000 a year. Clinton did well among other income levels, too — she won 66% of voters who earn between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, and 70% of voters who make more than $100,000.
• Clinton won across ideologies. She grabbed 70% of the vote or more from liberals, moderates, and conservatives.
• Finally, she captured voters in a category considered a big weakness. Among voters who said their top quality for a candidate was honesty and trustworthiness, she won 51% of the vote.

Experts, however, tend to be skeptical of entrance and exit polls, particularly when it comes to measuring minority-voter groups. The exit polls CNN used had 1,461 respondents who were surveyed after leaving voting places.