“You go to a (Democratic) political meeting today in this state, and it’s three times as big as it was,” said Phil Noble, a member of the presumptive Democratic nominee’s S.C. steering committee and president of the S.C. New Democrats. “You have to strain to find the old guys.”

"Elvis is in the building!" announced Phil Noble, president of the S.C. New Democrats, around 6:15 p.m.

The reception and dinner were sponsored by the S.C. New Democrats, the successor to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council which Clinton, as governor of Arkansas, and Riley were founders of in the 1970s.

"They are both new Democrats," Noble said, "and the only way the Democratic Party will succeed again in this state is to have new, bold ideas. ... That’s what the South Carolina New Democrats are about."

Former President Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker next week at a tribute honoring his two-term U.S. education secretary, Dick Riley.

In Democrats 'Uphill Battle' the SC New Democrats are an effective force for reform...and winning ...in state politics.