WASHINGTON—Barack Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton in North Carolina on Tuesday, rebounding from a shaky few weeks and moving a step closer to securing the Democratic presidential nomination after a grueling struggle.
Clinton led Obama in early returns from voting in Indiana as the two Democrats, who have been locked in a see-saw battle for months, appeared headed to a split of the two states' nominating contests.
The New York senator was ahead of Obama by 56 percent to 44 percent with about 38 percent of votes counted in Indiana.
The two states, with a combined 187 delegates to the August nominating convention at stake, were the biggest prizes left in the race to pick the party's presidential candidate for November's election. After Tuesday, only six contests remain.
The win by Obama helped steady his campaign after a rough patch marked by a big loss to Clinton in Pennsylvania two weeks ago and a roaring controversy over racially charged remarks by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
A pair of losses would be disastrous for Clinton, the former first lady who is struggling to overtake Obama in the White House race.
Obama, an Illinois senator, has an almost unassailable lead in pledged delegates who will help select the Democratic nominee to face Republican John McCain in November.
If Obama wins in both Indiana and North Carolina, it would end Clinton's slender hopes of catching him in either delegates or popular votes won in the nomination battle and spark renewed calls for her to step aside.
A split decision in Tuesday's votes would leave the race largely unchanged before the last six contests, which have 217 delegates at stake. But it moves Obama closer to the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
An MSNBC count before the Tuesday contests had Obama with 1,746 delegates to Clinton's 1,611. Delegates had not been awarded from Tuesday's contests, but they are allocated on a proportional, rather than a winner-take-all basis.
Superdelegates to Decide
Neither candidate can win enough delegates to clinch the race before the state-by-state voting ends on June 3, leaving the decision to the nearly 800 superdelegates—party insiders free to back any candidate at the Democrats' nominating convention in August.
Exit polls showed the economy was the top issue for two-thirds of Indiana voters and about 6 of every 10 voters in North Carolina. Clinton, who would be the first woman U.S. president, narrowly led among those voters in Indiana, while Obama led in North Carolina.
In the last week, the two Democrats courted working- and middle-class voters suffering from an ailing economy and high gas prices and battled over Clinton's proposal to lift the federal gasoline tax for the summer.
Obama and many economists called the plan a political gimmick that would save little money for most families, but Clinton launched an advertisement in both states questioning her rival's stance.
Clinton says a suspension of the tax during June, July and August, when many Americans take vacations, would help people deal with record gas prices in a faltering economy.
Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, won 9 out of 10 black voters in North Carolina, who made up about one third of the state's primary voters, exit polls showed.
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