With nearly all the votes counted Hillary Rodham Clinton has won the Democratic caucus in Nevada this evening, powering past Barack Obama in a hard-fought race marred by last-minute charges of dirty politics. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney easily won the Republican contest in the same state.
The victory marks the second-straight campaign triumph for the former first lady, who gained an upset victory over Obama in last week's New Hampshire primary.
Returns showed Ms Clinton gaining roughly half the vote in a three-way Democratic race, with Mr Obama on about 45 per cent and former North Carolina senator John Edwards placing a distant third.
Mr Obama and Ms Clinton both ran all-out in Nevada, even though only 25 delegates are at stake. Preliminary results from interviews with voters entering their caucuses showed woman voting heavily for the former first lady. She and Mr Obama split the male vote.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney easily won the Republican caucus in Nevada this evening as the race between John McCanin and Mike Huckabee in the South Carolina Republican primary was said to be too close to call.
Mr Romney said Republicans had cast their votes for change — and that he was the man to provide it. "With a career spent turning around businesses, creating jobs and imposing fiscal discipline, I am ready to get my hands on Washington and turn it inside out," he said in a statement issued while he flew to Florida, site of next week's primary.
The Republican caucuses in Nevada drew relatively little candidate interest. Not so the party's South Carolina primary, the second half of a campaign doubleheader, and a duel between John McCain and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
Mr Romney's western victory marked a second straight success for the former Massachusetts governor, coming quickly after a first-place finish in the Michigan primary revived a faltering campaign.
The first scattered returns showed Romney with more than 50 per cent of the vote. Paul, McCain and Huckabee were tightly bunched, far behind the leader. He also won at least 14 of the 31 Republican National Convention delegates at stake.
Nevada offered more delegates — 31 versus 24 — but far less appeal to the Republican candidates than South Carolina, a primary that has gone to the party's eventual nominee every four years since 1980.
That made it a magnet for former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who staked his candidacy on a strong showing, as well as for Romney, McCain, the Arizona senator; and Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.