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Obama gains new momentum over Clinton with Mississippi win

12/03/2008

Barack Obama has beaten Hillary Clinton in the Mississippi primary to grasp back the momentum in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr Obama, who is aiming to become the first black president of the United States, was always expected to win in the southern state due to its high population of ethnic minorities.

Exit polls showed Mr Obama to have won around 90 per cent of the black voters in the state, while he also polled well among younger voters.

With almost all of the votes counted, Mr Obama had won 60.7 per cent of the vote to Mrs Clinton's 37.1 per cent to follow up Saturday's primary victory in Wyoming.

The result means the Illinois senator has a slight lead in the race for delegates that would secure his party's nomination for the presidential vote.

Following Tuesday's votes, Mr Obama now has 1,596 delegates, having beaten Mrs Clinton in 26 states so far, while the New York senator has won only 16 states, albeit larger ones, to amass 1,484 delegates.

To win the nomination, candidates must secure 2,025 delegates in total.

"What we have tried to do is steadily make sure that in each state we are making the case about the need for change in this country, and obviously the people of Mississippi responded," Mr Obama told news channel CNN.

The next few weeks are expected to take on added importance for the Democratic candidates as they head for the Pennsylvania primary in April, which has the highest number of delegates available out of any individual state yet to cast its ballot.

The winning candidate for the Democrats will face Republican John McCain for the White House after he comfortably secured his party's nomination for the November election.