Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton won heated
presidential nominating battles in South Carolina and Nevada,
picking up strength in an unpredictable White House race where no
candidate has been able to sustain momentum.
McCain, an Arizona senator, narrowly defeated rival Mike Huckabee,
a former Arkansas governor, in a tough fight focused on the economy
in South Carolina - a state where his presidential hopes were
destroyed in a bitter 2000 battle that set George Bush on a path to
the White House.
With 90% of the votes counted, McCain led 33% to 30%.
Huckabee told supporters in Columbia he had telephoned McCain to
congratulate him.
But he added, "This is not an event, this is a process, and the
process is, far, far from over."
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, won a Republican
race in Nevada that his rivals largely skipped in order to
concentrate on South Carolina.
Among Democrats, Clinton beat rival Barack Obama in a tough Nevada struggle that featured voting in the state's famed casino hotels and produced heated charges of irregularities.
The pair had split the first two Democratic contests.
"I guess this is how the West was won," Clinton said in Las Vegas,
telling reporters later: "This is one step on a long journey
throughout the country."
No one in either party has claimed the role of favourite in the
race to pick the two candidates to contest the November 4 election
to succeed Bush, with the first major state-by-state battles
producing multiple winners.
For the victors on Saturday, the prize is a jolt of energy in a
race where momentum has been short-lived.
Republican contenders head to Florida for a January 29 primary,
while Democrats focus on next Saturday's primary in South
Carolina.
Both parties then turn their attention to the critical February 5
"Super Tuesday" round of 22 state contests.
Clinton won the Nevada Democratic race, 51% to 45%, with turnout
reported to surpass 115,000 voters.
"We ran an honest, uplifting campaign in Nevada that focused on the
real problems Americans are facing, a campaign that appealed to
people's hopes instead of their fears," Obama said in a
statement.
"That's the campaign we'll take to South Carolina and across
America in the weeks to come."
South Carolina conservatives
McCain's win in South Carolina comes after a win in New Hampshire
and was fuelled by support from conservatives, with seven in 10
voters in the state primary describing themselves that way,
according to exit polls.
More than half of the voters were evangelicals, but that was not
enough to give the win to Huckabee, a Baptist preacher before he
entered politics whose Iowa win was fuelled by evangelical
support.
South Carolina Republicans have been kingmakers in party politics,
with the Republican winner in the state going on to capture the
party's nomination every year since 1980.
But the results create big questions going forward for Huckabee and
former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, who needed a strong showing
in the state to go on but was battling Romney for third
place.
Thompson gave no sign of his future plans during an address to
supporters in Columbia after the voting.
Romney's convincing win in Nevada followed his breakthrough victory
in Michigan last week after two disappointing second-place finishes
for the former Massachusetts governor.
Romney stressed his ability as a former business executive to
tackle economic problems.
Exit polls showed the economy was the top concern among Nevada's
Republican voters, followed closely by immigration.
"In the last week two of the battleground states have come out
strongly for our campaign. They have heard our message that
Washington is broken," Romney said in Jacksonville, Florida.
Worries about the economy have taken centre stage amid worries
about a possible recession in the United States, with each of the
candidates offering recovery plans.
Bush on Friday proposed about $150 billion in temporary tax
breaks and other measures.
Republican Duncan Hunter of California fell victim to poor showings
in all the early contests and dropped out of the race for the
Republican nomination.
