Senator Barack Obama routed Hillary Clinton in South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary on Saturday, riding massive African-American support to a critical win in his bid to become the first black US president.
US television projected Obama as the winner in the key contest for the Democratic Party nomination, with Clinton in second place trailed by former senator John Edwards in third.
Obama, who badly needed a win to keep his hopes alive, was projected to win with 81 percent of the black vote, while Clinton, who would be the first woman US president, took 17 percent of that segment according to a CNN exit poll.
The South Carolina vote marked a second key victory for Obama and evened the score with Clinton, who has also won two key state primaries ahead of a blitz of nearly two dozen nation-wide contests on February 5.
CNN said with 18 percent of the results in, the charismatic Illinois senator had won 54 percent of the state vote, after the earlier dropping contests in New Hampshire and Nevada following his shock triumph in Iowa. New York senator Clinton received 27 percent of the vote, while Edwards took 19 percent. Exit polls showed the vote was divided along racial and gender lines, in a state where African-Americans make up half the Democratic electorate.
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