Barack Obama has won the Wyoming caucuses. It's a big victory for the Illinois senator in a tight race with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.
With 22 of 23 counties reporting, Obama had 59 percent of the vote and Clinton had 40 per cent.
Obama is hoping to stem the wave of momentum Clinton gained after her victories in three of four state primaries on Mar. 4, including important wins in delegate-rich Texas and Ohio. In recent days, Clinton campaign officials had downplayed their expectations in the Wyoming caucuses. Obama has outperformed Clinton in past caucuses, winning 12 before Wyoming and losing only three.
Only 12 delegates were up for grabs in Wyoming, but in what has become a tight race, election officials say state Democrats were turning out in record numbers. In 2004, only 675 people voted in the state caucuses. More than 4,500 had voted Saturday, according to the latest count.
There are 59,000 registered Democrats in the state and on Saturday, one county alone was reporting a turnout of up to 1,000 people.
"I'm worried about where we're going to put them all. But I guess everybody's got the same problem," said Joyce Corcoran, a local party official in Sweetwater County. "So far, we're OK. But man, they keep coming."
Over at Converse County, long lines forced party officials to delay their caucus start. Some late arrivers were even turned away because they missed cutoff times. That left one Democrat with mixed feelings.
"I'm so proud to see there are this many Democrats showing up in Cheyenne, but I'm very disappointed in the rules because we had difficulty parking and we had a long walk and they closed it off at 9 (a.m. MST),'' said Vera Double.
"We're disenfranchised, which they've done in other parts of the country.''
The big turnout follows campaign stops in the states by the candidates on Friday. Clinton held town-hall meetings and Obama held a rally at the University of Wyoming, along with a townhall meeting in the town of Casper.
As of the start of Saturday's caucuses, Obama held an overall pledged delegate lead of 1,571 to 1,462. Clinton, however, leads in the superdelegate count by 242 to 210. The eventual nominee will need at least 2,025 delegates to win the race. The next primary will take place on Tuesday in Mississippi.
With files from The Associated Press
