TIMES ONLINE

Barack Obama wins Virginia in crushing blow to Hillary Clinton

Tim Reid and Tom Baldwin in Washington Barack Obama has won a crushing victory over Hillary Clinton in Virginia's primary, and is expected to win overwhelmingly in Maryland and Washington DC, as another of her top campaign officials resigned. Two days after the removal of her campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, Mrs Clinton's deputy campaign manager Mike Henry announced his resignation, adding to the impression of a campaign under severe stress. Mr Obama was heavily favoured to win the contests in the so called "Potomac primaries" in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC, where black voters account for a big proportion of turnout. But early exit polls suggested he won Virginia overwhelmingly, and split the white vote with Mrs Clinton, a worrying sign for the former First Lady whose earlier successes have been based in part on winning that demographic, and adding to fears within her campaign that Mr Obama's momentum might become unstoppable. Mr Obama also won among women 58 per cent to 42, according to exit polls, in contrast to Mrs Clinton's heavy and critical backing from females to date, the cornerstone of her campaign. However such a heavily skewed swing toward Mr Obama among women will also be the result of the large number of African American women who voted in Virginia. On the Republican side, John McCain won a narrow victory over Mike Huckabee. His slender win indicated that the Arizona senator will continue to struggle to close out the nomination because of hostility from conservatives, many of whom appeared to have rallied behind Mr Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and onetime Baptist minister. After his weekend wins in five contests, victory in tonight's three contests will leave Mr Obama slightly ahead in the delegate count for the first time, with fears mounting inside the former First Lady's camp that her losing streak is jeopardising her nomination chances. Mrs Clinton says she is confident of victory in Ohio and Texas, and argues that she has won significantly more big primary states than Mr Obama such as New Jersey, California and Arizona where the Democratic electorate is more representative of the nation. Yet while Mrs Clinton remains a formidable candidate, she was forced on Monday to hold a conference call with worried supporters to try to calm their nerves, the day after the removal of Ms Solis Doyle raised concerns that panic was setting in. Aides are now privately conceding that failure to win in Ohio and Texas could end Mrs Clinton's campaign, as both states should favour her. Ohio has a heavily white, blue-collar, unionised Democratic electorate - a voting bloc that has largely backed her in previous contests while Texas has a significant proportion of Hispanics, who have also overwhelmingly supported her.

In a sign of how critical the two March 4 states have become to her campaign, Mrs Clinton flew yesterday to Texas, rather than to Wisconsin, the next state to vote in her nominating battle with Mr Obama. The two candidates added another debate to their schedule on February 21 in Austin, Texas. Mr Obama is again favoured to win Wisconsin next Tuesday, as well as Hawaii, the state where he grew up and where caucuses are held on the same day. If he emerges victorious from the Potomac primaries tonight, and in the two elections next week, Mrs Clinton will head into March 4 having lost ten straight contests. It is a dynamic that is giving Mr Obama daily momentum and money. He raised $32 million (16 million) in January a record and aides say that he could raise at least that much this month. He is favourite to win Wisconsin, where a poll released yesterday put him ahead by 50 to 39 per cent. Both candidates have began airing advertisements in Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio yesterday. Mr Obama headed into yesterdays contests having won 19 states, to Mrs Clintons 12. The former First Lady argues that many of her rivals victories have come in caucus states, which she says are less significant than her primary victories.