Obama Pulls Ahead as Narrow Win in Indiana Keeps Clinton Going

Gallery

Democrats Split Indiana and North Carolina

Sen. Barack Obama won North Carolina's presidential primary by a wide margin Tuesday, while Sen. Hillary Clinton narrowly won in Indiana.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

And, like Obama, she pledged to help unify the party, regardless of the outcome. "No matter what happens I will work for the Democratic nominee, because we must win in November," she said.

Yesterday's outcome came after the most difficult month of the campaign for Obama. Clinton had gained momentum by winning in Pennsylvania two weeks ago, and Obama's position appeared even more perilous when his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., went on a public relations tour and repeated many of his most controversial statements. Obama finally made an emphatic break with Wright a week before the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.

Roughly a third of the voters in both states said the Wright situation was very important in their vote, and those voters went heavily for Clinton. But an almost equal percentage said Wright made no difference, and they strongly supported Obama.

The economy was the dominant issue in both states. More than six in 10 voters in each state cited that issue as the most important one facing the country -- equaling the biggest percentages of the primary season. In North Carolina, those economy-driven voters backed Obama narrowly; in Indiana, they supported Clinton.

In North Carolina, Obama brushed aside a determined effort by Clinton, whose campaign believed her populist economic message and proposal for a summer suspension of the federal gasoline tax was helping her to gain ground there on her heavily favored rival. Overwhelming support from African American voters, who made up a third of the electorate, helped seal the Obama victory.

In Indiana, Clinton built her initial lead with strong support from white voters, particularly working-class whites who had become the focus of both candidates. Obama enjoyed an advantage in northwestern Indiana because of its proximity to his home in Chicago, but Clinton sought to balance that with solid support in more culturally conservative southern Indiana. She carried the overwhelming number of counties in the state, but Obama won college towns and the city of Indianapolis.

The Indiana and North Carolina results followed the pattern of previous Obama-Clinton contests. Clinton carried the votes of white women in both states, while Obama won men in North Carolina and split them with Clinton in Indiana. Obama won younger voters, while Clinton carried the backing of older voters. Clinton won whites; Obama won blacks.

At stake yesterday were 187 pledged delegates -- 115 in North Carolina and 72 in Indiana. That made yesterday the third-biggest day of the long nomination battle in terms of delegates, but more important, it was the last big day on the calendar.

An additional 217 pledged delegates remain to be chosen in the final six contests between now and June 3: primaries in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota.

Obama entered the day with 1,745 delegates to Clinton's 1,608, according to an Associated Press tally. Included in that count are superdelegates -- elected officials and party leaders who are automatically granted a vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Among those superdelegates, Clinton led Obama 270 to 255.

Obama has gradually narrowed what was a much larger gap in the superdelegate competition. About 270 superdelegates remain uncommitted, by most media counts.

Those superdelegates are critical because neither Obama nor Clinton can reach the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination in the remaining contests. Because pledged delegates are allocated proportionally on the basis of primary results in each state, it is virtually certain Obama will end the primaries with a lead among pledged delegates but still short of the majority needed.