By Mike Manzoni and Samuel Rubenfeld
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) vowed to fight on in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, despite increasing momentum towards her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), and mathematical odds increasingly sliding against her.
Obama handily won the North Carolina primary and Clinton claimed an unexpectedly hard fought victory in Indiana Tuesday night, resulting in some of her high-profile supporters to call for her to bow out of the race.
Obama’s win in North Carolina narrowed Clinton’s edge in superdelegates to 10 with only six contests left in the primary season.
Despite blue-collar demographics in the state that appeared to favor Clinton, she won in Indiana by a two-point margin, indicating that the primary was closer than her campaign and the polls had expected. CBS News called her the projected victor at 8:18 p.m. Tuesday night, but all other networks held their projections until after 1 a.m., due to late returns from Lake County, an expected Obama stronghold.
“I’m staying in this race until there’s a nominee,” Clinton said at an appearance in Shepherdstown, W.Va. on Wednesday afternoon, which was scheduled at 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to NBC News, which reported late Tuesday night that her campaign had cancelled all television appearances and campaign events for the day after the pivotal primaries.
Former Sen George McGovern (D-S.D.), who ran for president and lost in 1972 against Richard Nixon, and a Clinton supporter, called for her to step out of the race, embracing Obama as “a talented man.”
“I think she has waged a really courageous and valiant campaign. She will have my affection and admiration for all of my days,” McGovern said. “But I think mathematically the race is all but won by Barack Obama and the time has come for all of us to unite and get ready for the general election in the fall.”
Clinton campaign representatives responded to McGovern’s suggestion, but looked to future contests.
“Senator Clinton appreciates Senator McGovern’s friendship, but believes the voters in the upcoming states should have their voices heard in this process,” Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for Clinton, said.
Another Clinton supporter, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), said the continuing battle for the nomination between the Democratic candidates were “negative dividends in terms of strife within the party.”
Feinstein said she “wants to see what her [Clinton’s] view is on the rest of the race.” She also wondered what strategy Clinton would use.
Aides to the Obama campaign are wondering aloud about the endgame of the race. During a campaign conference call Wednesday morning, David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, said the race could end as early as May 20, when the campaign believes it will have a majority of the 3,253 pledged delegates up for grabs.
“We think that will be an incredibly important date in the campaign,” Plouffe said.
In North Carolina, Obama received 56 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 42 percent. Obama received 62 delegates to Clinton’s 46.
The Indiana primary was won by Clinton with 51 percent, two points away from Obama who won 49 percent. But Clinton only scored four more delegates than Obama in the state.
Exit polls conducted in Indiana indicated only a small gender gap. Both Clinton and Obama were tied with the male vote and Clinton received 52 percent of the female vote compared to the 48 percent that Obama received.
Clinton also got the Catholic and Protestant vote, while Obama was popular with other religious groups.
Ninety-four percent of those polled said Clinton was more likely than Obama to win in the general election in November.
Obama’s North Carolina victory was more decisive. He won there with over 50 percent of the vote from both male and female voters. Frequent churchgoers also went to the polls for Obama in North Carolina.
According to estimates from The Associated Press, Obama stands at 1,846.5 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 1,696. 2,025 delegates total are needed to secure the party’s nomination.
Early this week, Clinton acknowledged that she has lent her campaign another $6.4 million, in addition to the $5 million she loaned the campaign earlier on in the primary season, bringing the total amount Clinton has loaned to her campaign to nearly $11.5 million.
The New York Senator said she loaned her campaign $5 million on April 11, then $1 million on May 1 and another $425,000 in recent weeks. Terry McCauliffe, Clinton’s campaign chairman, told The New York Times she is willing to lend even more money to her campaign.
Clinton met with undecided superdelegates and other unspecified members of Congress at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters on Wednesday.
West Virginia holds its primary on May 13, where Clinton is favored to win.
This article was supplemented by reports from multiple news services.