Democratic Presidential Candidate Obama Wins Mississippi Primary; 21% of Voters Cite Health Care as Most Important Issue

Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Tuesday defeated opponent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) in the Mississippi primary, CNN.com reports. Obama received 61% of the vote, and Clinton received 37% (CNN.com, 3/12).

An exit poll of Democratic primary voters found that they considered the economy their most important issue of the election, "well ahead" of health care and the war in Iraq, according to CQ Today (Kapochunas, CQ Today, 3/11). According to the poll, 55% of Democratic primary voters cited the economy as their most important election concern, compared with 21% who cited health care and 21% who cited the war in Iraq. Among Democratic primary voters who cited health care as their most important election issue, 64% voted for Obama, and 35% voted for Clinton, the poll found (CBSNews.com, 3/12).

The poll, conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, included responses from 1,667 Democratic primary voters in 35 Mississippi precincts. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points (Associated Press, 3/11).