Clinton Projected to Win Ohio

Hillary Clinton was set to end Barack Obama's long winning streak by taking the crucial Ohio primary last night but the outcome of the Texas race remained too close to call.

In Ohio, with 31% of the vote counted, Clinton had 57% to Obama's 41%. In Texas, with 12% of the votes counted, Clinton had 48% to Obama's 50%.

Rhode Island was called early for Clinton on the basis of exit polls. With 38% of the votes counted, Clinton had 61% to Obama's 38%. Vermont was called early for Obama. With 67% of the vote counted, Clinton had 38% to Obama's 60%.

Clinton's campaign team insisted last night she will push on with the battle for the Democratic nomination.

Terry McAuliffe, her campaign manager, argued the closeness of the contest meant that race had to go on. "Let me be crystal clear - Hillary Clinton is not going anywhere," he said.

Clinton, who was in Columbus, Ohio, last night for an election party with supporters, before flying back to Washington, said she would make a decision based on the final outcomes of Ohio and Texas.

"I'm not going to think about what comes after until we know what happened today. This is a long journey," she said on the CBS Evening News.

Hillary Clinton's campaign team insisted last night she will push on with the battle with Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination as exit polls indicated the Ohio and Texas primaries were too tight to call.

In the other contest, John McCain formally wrapped up the Republican contest with decisive wins in Vermont, Ohio and Texas that pushed him over the magic line, the 1,191 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

Last night, before all the votes were counted, his main rival, Mike Huckabee, phoned McCain to inform him he was pulling out of the contest. President George Bush is expected to endorse McCain today.

If Clinton and Obama continue to battle it out for the Democratic nomination, McCain has a potential advantage in that he is now free to prepare for the November general election.

Exit polls suggested a good night for Clinton in Texas among Latino voters, with 64% support. That looked set to eclipse Obama's strength among African American voters, where there was a slightly lower turnout than in the 2004 primary.

Latinos made up more than 30% of those who voted in the Democratic race.Exit polls in Ohio showed Clinton holding on to her core support: women, low-income voters and union households.

However, Obama carried more than 90% of the African American vote which made up 20% of the electorate.

The next contest is Wyoming, which holds its caucuses on Saturday, followed by Mississippi, which has its primary on Tuesday.

The next big prize is Pennsylvania on April 22, the last of the mega-states in the race.

Two senior members of her team, Howard Wolfson and Phil Singer, speaking in a conference call with reporters before the results came through, said they expected Obama to win Wyoming and Mississippi but expressed confidence about Pennsylvania.Ohio's governor, Ted Strickland, who has supported Clinton, also suggested she will remain in the race.

He downplayed the argument of the Obama camp that it remained impossible for Clinton to catch up to his lead in delegates. Strickland suggested that super-delegates -- the members of Congress and other senior Democrats who may be called on to cast the decisive ballots in a close race --- should keep in mind Clinton's performance in large states such as New York, New Jersey and California as well as the delegate count.The magic number for securing the Democratic nomination is 2,025 delegates at the party conference in Denver in August.

Before last night's primaries, Obama had 1,386 delegates (including the 'super-delegates', senior Democrats such as members of Congress who automatically have a vote) and Clinton 1,276. There are ten contests remaining, with more than 600 at stake.

Exit polls in yesterday's primaries showed that concern about the economy was the biggest issue for most voters, 61% in recession-hit Ohio and 48% in Texas.The Iraq war, the biggest issue throughout most of last year, was named as the main issue by only 17% of those leaving the polls yesterday in Ohio and 26% in Texas.

In Vermont, a liberal state, which is strongly anti-war, voters named the Iraq war as one of the main issues, second only to the economy. Thirty-six per cent said opposition to the Iraq war was the main issue while 40% said it was the impending recession.

Clinton since the middle of last week has thrown almost everything at Obama, from his links with Anton 'Tony' Rezko, who went on trial for alleged corruption on Monday, through to a controversial ad questioning whether the country would be safe in his hands.