Democratic Presidential Candidate Obama Wins North Carolina Primary; Opponent Clinton Wins Indiana Primary

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Tuesday won the North Carolina primary with 56% of the vote, compared with 42% for opponent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), CNN.com reports. In the Indiana primary, Clinton won with 51% of the vote, compared with 49% for Obama (CNN.com, 5/7).

An exit poll in North Carolina found that 16% of Democratic primary voters cited health care as their most important election issue, compared with 60% who cited the economy and 22% who cited the war in Iraq. Among North Carolina Democratic primary voters who cited health care as their most important election issue, 62% supported Obama, and 36% favored Clinton, the poll found. In Indiana, an exit poll found that 13% of Democratic primary voters cited health care as their most important election issue, compared with 67% who cited the economy and 17% who cited the war in Iraq. Among Indiana Democratic primary voters who cited health care as their most important election issue, 56% supported Clinton, and 44% favored Obama, according to the poll (New York Times graphic, 5/7).

The exit polls, conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International, surveyed Democratic primary voters in 35 precincts in both North Carolina and Indiana. In addition, the exit poll in North Carolina included a telephone survey of 400 absentee Democratic primary voters, who accounted for 30% of the electorate in the state. The exit polls included responses from a total of 2,316 Democratic primary voters in North Carolina and 1,881 voters in Indiana. The exit polls in both states had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points (AP/Washington Post, 5/7).