Highlights of preliminary results from exit polls conducted in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont:
Divided by race, gender
While Sen. Barack Obama has made significant inroads among whites and women, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton still won the support of her base in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. She won among white women and older voters in those states, while Obama won his usual strong victory among blacks.
White men have been a key swing group in this year’s Democratic primaries. Clinton won the white men in Ohio, tied with Obama for their votes in Texas and came close in Rhode Island. Clinton won nearly two-thirds of the votes of Latinos in Texas. Blacks were one in five voters in Ohio and Texas, while Latinos were nearly a third of voters in Texas.
Vermont is Obama country; smallest state goes to Clinton
Obama’s easy victory in Vermont contrasted with the closer races in Ohio, and Texas. Obama’s strong showing in Vermont cut across groups Clinton usually wins, including whites, older people and women.
Clinton’s victory in Rhode Island was also a contrast. There, she won seven in 10 white women and tied Obama among white men. She won all but the youngest voters and even won among college graduates, a group that has favored Obama in recent contests.
McCain makes inroads with evangelicals
Four in 10 voters in the Ohio Republican primary and half the voters in the Texas Republican primary were white, evangelical Christians, and Sen. John McCain ran close to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee among those voters.
Open to all
The primaries in Ohio, Texas and Vermont were open to all voters, while in Rhode Island registered independents could choose which party’s primary to vote in. In Ohio and Texas, Republicans voting in the Democratic primary and self-described independents split between Clinton and Obama. In Vermont, independents went mostly for Obama, while they split between the two candidates in Rhode Island.
Fretting about the economy
The economy was big in Ohio Democratic voters’ minds — six in 10 said it’s the most important issue facing the country, more than said so in any of the other 25 Democratic primaries with exit polls this year. Clinton won among those Ohio voters most concerned about the economy. More than half of Rhode Island Democrats and nearly as many in Texas picked the economy as the top issue out of three choices. In Vermont, almost as many voters picked Iraq as selected the economy.
Who inspires you?
Four in 10 Clinton voters in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island said Obama inspires them about the future of the country. Obama voters were less likely to call Clinton inspirational.
Superdelegates
Roughly six in 10 Democratic voters Tuesday said “superdelegates” — party leaders and elected officials who get to cast votes at the party nominating convention this summer in Denver — should vote based on results of the primaries and caucuses.
Results from partial statewide samples of voters in 40 precincts each in Ohio and Texas and 20 each in Rhode Island and Vermont as well as a telephone survey of early voters in Texas. Fieldwork by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. Sample sizes ranged from 964 voters in the Rhode Island Democratic primary to 1,768 in the Texas Democratic contest.
The Associated Press
