February 13, 2008: The Maryland Democratic Primary – Feb. 12 was won by Illinois Senator Barack Obama. He defeated his nearest rival and Democrat hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, by a commendable margin of 12% popular votes. Sen. Obama secured 59% of the popular votes, whereas Sen. Clinton finished with 37%. Delegate votes are yet to be finalized. However, according to the latest reports, Sen. Obama has won the support of 12 delegates, and Sen. Clinton has secured nine of them. A total of 70 pledged delegates tied for Maryland Primary on Tuesday, excluding the 29 superdelegates.
Obama’s victory in the Maryland Primary is attributed to his steadily increasing popularity among all sections of Democrat voters. A majority of the Black votes predictably went for him. Obama won 88-89% of the Black votes, which accounted for 37% of the total strength in Maryland. It was the highest percentage of Black votes he won after his home state Illinois. He also won the majority of the white votes and the senior votes, two sections that were demarcated as the strongest supporters of Sen. Clinton. He also managed to edge past Sen. Clinton in the vote count among the Hispanic voters.
It is generally believed that the ‘change’ factor emphasized in Obama’s campaigns went down well with the voters. Obama also won on the ‘electability’ count: a parameter where the voters believe that the candidate cares for people like them. The ‘electability’ factor played a major role behind Obama’s win in Maryland. A large section of the Independent voters were also won by Obama.
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