WASHINGTON (Reuters)
With her hard-fought duel with Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination resting with voters in Ohio and Texas, Hillary Clinton refused to count herself out of the U.S. presidential race on Tuesday.
Turnout was expected to be strong in states -- Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island -- voting on Tuesday. Polls close in Ohio at 7:30 p.m. EST (0030 GMT on Wednesday) and all voting in Texas will be over by 9 p.m. EST (0200 GMT on Wednesday).
The first results could be available immediately after the polls close, although a very tight race could take hours.
Clinton, a New York senator battling to snap Obama's string of 11 state-by-state victories, needs wins in both Ohio and Texas to rejuvenate her campaign and justify keeping the Democratic race alive until the next delegate-rich prize -- Pennsylvania -- votes on April 22.
Losses in even one of Tuesday's states could set off a stampede of party support for Obama, raise pressure on Clinton to drop out and make it even tougher to cut Obama's lead in the pledged delegates who will choose the Democratic nominee to contest November's presidential election.
Opinion polls show Clinton and Obama in tight races in both Ohio and Texas -- the biggest prizes on Tuesday.
The former first lady, who would be the first female U.S. president, refused to mull how she would respond to a loss.
"I don't think like that. We're working hard," Clinton told reporters after greeting voters at a school. "We think we're going to do really well here in Texas and in Ohio."
Clinton had a slim lead in Texas over Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black president, and pulled even in Ohio, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll released on Tuesday.
She took a 47 percent to 44 percent lead on Obama in Texas, reversing his 3-point edge in the poll on Monday. The lead was within the poll's margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
Tuesday's contests also could put Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican front-runner, close to clinching his party's nomination. McCain is favored to beat his last major rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, in all four states.
"I believe that with your help today that we can secure enough delegates to make sure that we can secure the nomination, but we have to win and we have to win big here in the state of Texas," McCain told supporters in San Antonio. |
