On Biden prioritizing South Carolina over Iowa in the Democratic primary process:

It makes sense. Iowa used to be a strongly progressive state (from its founding), but by 2000 the religious right (leveraging the Farm Bureau organization) turned Iowa into the Bible Belt, and now in 2022 the Democratic party in Iowa is way out of power.

Things do change in this country, even if slowly.

It is more likely that a Democrat that wins in SC can with nation-wide, than one who wins in Iowa, now. Wasn’t the case even as late as 2008 (Obama), but 2024 is 16 years after Obama and the transitioning of Iowa to the Bible Belt is now entrenched.

Same thing happened to Indiana.

Ohio is more populated and thus the situation there is more complicated.

Illinois would have easily followed Indiana and Iowa save for the existence of Chicago. Same with Minnesota, which is not deep atavist because of the Twin Cities area holding most of the population of that state.