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Victory in largest state is biggest prize as Clinton takes most big states
BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and MSNBC
updated 12:53 a.m. ET Feb. 6, 2008
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York won the mammoth California primary Tuesday night, NBC News projected, adding to wins in other delegate-rich states in the Northeast.
California was the big prize of the night, with 370 delegates. Because of the Democratic nominating rules, Clinton will win a majority but not all of those delegates. Combined with Sen. Barack Obama’s win in his home state of Illinois and his significant haul of delegates in numerous smaller states, the Democratic nomination was not likely to be decided Tuesday night, NBC News projected.
Clinton’s victories included New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey in addition to California, according to NBC News’ projections from official returns and extensive exit-polling data. She also picked up victories in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arizona.
Obama bolstered his win in Illinois with victories in Georgia, Alabama, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Utah, Kansas, North Dakota, Idaho and Alaska, NBC News projected. He also appeared to be winning in Missouri, it said.
Clinton greeted cheering supporters Tuesday night in New York before her victory in California was apparent. “Tonight, we are hearing the voices of people across America,” she said.
Obama sounded similar themes while addressing his supporters in Chicago.
“This campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different,” Obama said to cheers and chants. “Our time has come. Our movement is real and change is coming to America.”
‘No idea what the delegate count is’
The two dozen contests Tuesday were delivering 1,681 of the 2,025 delegates needed for the Democratic nomination, but “we don’t have any idea what the delegate count is,” Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “This is not going to be decided tonight.”
That was because all of the states were dividing their delegates proportionally, so a candidate who finished second could pick up an impressive haul of delegates.
Chuck Todd, NBC News’ political director, said that while Clinton was winning more of the big primary states, Obama was picking up significant delegate totals, notably in New York, where he could come away with nearly 40 percent of the total.
Obama was also doing “extremely well” in the states that were holding caucuses, Todd said, particularly Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho and Colorado.R
