Democratic Presidential Candidate Clinton Wins Three of Four Primaries; Republican Candidate McCain Secures Nomination
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) on Tuesday won the Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas primaries, and opponent Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) won the Vermont primary, CNN.com reports. Obama leads in the Texas Democratic caucuses. Among Republican candidates, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) won primaries in all four states and secured the nomination (CNN.com, 3/5).
According to exit polls of Democratic voters in Ohio, among three issues, 58% cited the economy as their most important election concern, compared with 19% who cited health care, and 19% who cited the war in Iraq(Washington Post graphic, 3/5). Among Democratic voters in Ohio who cited health care as their most important election issue, 56% voted for Clinton, and 42% voted for Obama, exit polls found (CNN.com, 3/5). Exit polls also found that, among Democratic voters in Texas, 49% cited the economy as their most important election issue, compared with 26% who cited the war in Iraq and 21% who cited health care (New York Times graphic, 3/5).
In Vermont, about one in five Democratic voters cited health care as their most important election issue, and those voters supported Clinton and Obama at the same levels, exit polls found (Rutland Herald, 3/4). Exit polls also found than more than half of Democratic voters in Rhode Island cited the economy as their most important issue.
The exit polls, conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, included statewide samples from Democratic voters in 40 precincts in both Ohio and Texas and in 20 precincts in both Vermont and Rhode Island, as well as a telephone survey of early voters in Texas. Sample sizes for the exit polls ranged from 964 Democratic voters in Rhode Island, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points, to 2,048 voters in Texas, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points (AP/FOX News.com, 3/5).
