(CN) - The candidate was running late.
As about 1,800 people lined up outside the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston Thursday night, former Secretary of Staff Hillary Clinton had yet to even board the private plane that would bring her to Charleston from Myrtle Beach, S.C., some 98 miles away.
The wait, however, did nothing to diminish the enthusiasm of the crowd, which bided its time listening the music of Katie Perry, Taylor Swift and Bon Jovi that played over loud speakers, and by breaking into spontaneous chants.
"Madam," someone shouted out near the foot of the stage.
"President," came a voice near the back of the room.
With that, the call and response was off and running.
"Madam."
"President."
"Madam."
"President."
A short time later another chant arose, this time it was:
"I believe ..."
" ... she will win."
"I believe ..."
" ... she will win."
One day before the polls open, there is now little doubt that Clinton will score a decisive victory in South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary. A poll released by Clemson University as the candidate barnstormed through eastern South Carolina Thursday showed her having a commanding 50 point lead over her opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The poll shows that 64 percent of likely voters will vote for Clinton on Saturday, while just 14 percent will definitely support Sanders. Slightly more than 1 in 5 voters told university researchers they are still undecided. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.
"After a razor-thin victory by Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, a blowout by Sanders in the New Hampshire primary and a small victory margin by Clinton in the Nevada caucuses, Clinton is perched on the cusp of her own significant primary victory in the Palmetto State," said Bruce Ransom, a Clemson political science professor and co-director of the poll.
Ransom noted an interesting wrinkle in the compiling of the university's latest poll. Unlike last week, when Republican voters cited several reasons for their choice of candidate prior to the state's Republican presidential primary, more than two-thirds of voters participating in the Democratic poll refused to say why they preferred one candidate over the other.
Clinton's supporters were far less circumspect at the Baptist church, where the campaign rally a Town Hall-style event hosted by State Sen. Marion Kimpson was held in the church-school's gymnasium, which had been converted into a meeting hall for the occasion.
"I really admire that after all she's been through, the nonsense over the Benghazi attack in Libya and all the rest, that she's still going after it again," said Manish Mazyck, whose husband Darren, seated next to her, nodded in agreement.
The couple said they've been following both the Democratic and Republican races, and, like many others, have been surprised by many aspects of them.
"I don't even know where to start," Mazyck said as she tried to put her response to the campaigns into words.
"There's been nothing usual about this year," she said, but added, that's not necessarily a bad thing.