Sen. Barack Obama claimed a triumph by a wide margin over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Mississippi’s Democratic primary Tuesday.
Mississippi had 33 pledged delegates up for grabs, which will be allocated proportionally.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Obama had 61 percent of the vote, compared with Clinton’s 37 percent.
The state’s Democratic voters were sharply divided among racial lines, exit polls indicated.
"What we’ve tried to do is steadily make sure that in each state we are making the case about the need for change in this country. Obviously the people in Mississippi responded," Obama told.
The state has a larger proportion of African-Americans (36 percent, according to the 2000 census) than any other state in the country. And black voters make up nearly 70 percent of registered Democrats.
But Mississippi white voters overwhelmingly backed the New York senator, supporting her over Obama 72 percent to 21 percent.