Washington - Barack Obama emerged victorious in the Democratic presidential primary in Mississippi Tuesday over rival Hillary Clinton, major television networks reported based on exit polling and initial results. Broadcasters CNN, FOX and NBC projected Senator Obama has won the southern Gulf state - still reeling from the 2004 Hurricane Katrina - soon after polls closed at 8pm (0000 GMT Wednesday).
Obama, 46, and Senator Clinton, 60, have been locked in a tight battle for the Democratic nomination and both candidates already began campaigning Tuesday in Pennsylvania, the largest state in the remaining handful of contests, which will vote on April 22.
In Mississippi, 33 of the 2,025 delegates needed to be named the party's candidate were up for grabs. With the two candidates running neck and neck, Clinton campaigned heavily in Mississippi over the weekend despite Obama's strong lead in state opinion polls.
Both candidates at rallies criticized the administration's poor response to Hurricane Katrina and the slow and ongoing recovery effort.
Clinton lags behind Obama in the delegate count needed to secure the nomination at the party's convention in Denver in August by 127 delegates. Before Mississippi, Clinton had 1,470 delegates compared to Obama's 1,597, according to a CNN estimate.
Republican Senator John McCain sealed his grip on his party's nomination last week - standing unopposed in Tuesday's Mississippi primary - and has turned his sights to raising money for his campaign and uniting the Republican Party behind his candidacy.
After a hectic campaign season, the Democratic candidates will have six weeks to regroup before the last big-state primary in delegate-rich Pennsylvania on April 22. Polls show Clinton, who has family roots in the state, with an average lead of about 12 percentage points.
After Pennsylvania, only seven Democratic contests are left. But with the Obama and Clinton race so close, there is pressure for repeat voting in two of the country's largest states - Florida and Michigan - whose primary results were dismissed by the national party because they disobeyed directives not to hold their contests in January.
Under Democratic rules, delegates are assigned proportional to the vote, meaning a candidate can lose the majority vote but still get a sizeable number of delegates.
