Clinton returns to South Carolina, site of humbling '08 loss
By BILL BARROW, Associated Press
May 27, 2015 12:02 PM CDT
FILE - In this Tuesday, May 19, 2015 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to small business owners at the Bike Tech cycling shop in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The last time Clinton was in South Carolina, it was 2008 and she was on her way to losing the state's presidential...   (Associated Press)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton is focusing on women's issues in her first presidential campaign stop in South Carolina since losing to Barack Obama in the state in 2008.

She had lunch Wednesday with minority female business owners in Columbia before an afternoon speech to South Carolina Democratic women.

Republican hopeful Carly Fiorina is also in Columbia, drawing attention to her campaign as the only woman among the GOP's major candidates.

Women and minorities are particularly important for Clinton in 2016, and South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary offers her a chance to prove she can perform well with both constituencies that helped anchor Obama's general election coalition.

In the 2008 South Carolina primary, Obama won both groups handily on his way to a nearly 30-point victory that established his early lead over Clinton.