Barack Obama won overwhelmingly in the South Carolina primary tonight leaving Hillary Clinton and John Edwards to fight it out for second place, according to exit polls.
The primary, the first in the south, was bitterly contested between Obama and Clinton, aided by her husband.
Exit polls showed voters starkly divided by race, with Obama carried to victory by 81% of the African American vote. Clinton had 17% of the African American vote, and John Edwards just 1%.
However, the gender gap that carried Clinton to victory in New Hampshire and Nevada did not materialize. Although she won 42% of white women voters, the overwhelming majority of African American women voted for Obama. Clinton also performed poorly among white male voters.
Obama took a battering from Hillary and Bill Clinton all week, with bogus claims he supported Reaganite policies and bringing up his links with a slum landlord in Chicago facing a fraud trial.
It was a risky strategy for the Clintons who faced a lot of criticism from inside the Democratic party, amid fears that the tactics could polarize the electorate and could alienate African-Americans.
But exit polls showed the electorate blamed both Obama and the Clintons for the squabbling. About 50% blamed both, 21% blamed Hillary Clinton and 6% Obama.
The exit polls also suggested the electorate was not as split on race as some had feared, with 77% saying the country was ready for an African-American president. Roughly the same percentage, 74%, said they were ready for a woman president.
Clinton’s team concluded weeks ago they could not win South Carolina because about 50% of the Democratic electorate would be African-American and would vote overwhelmingly for Obama. Hillary Clinton spent only part of the week in South Carolina and campaigned instead elsewhere. She left South Carolina before the polling booths closed.
Both Obama and Edwards remained in the state for post-election parties but Obama then headed for Alabama to continue campaigning.
The next test is Florida on Tuesday. Although officially the Democratic party prohibited campaigning in the state because it broke its rules by holding its primary early, all the candidates names remain on the ballot papers.
Supporters of Clinton and Obama have been campaigning there and Clinton is to make fund-raising stops there on Sunday.