April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary, reviving her battle with Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Pennsylvania was a must-win state for Clinton, 60, who is trailing Obama, 46, in the popular vote and the race for delegates, after more than 40 contests.
With more 79 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton had 55 percent of the vote to Obama's 45 percent.
``Some people counted me out and said to drop out. But the American people don't quit, and they deserve a president who doesn't quit either,'' Clinton said tonight at a rally in Philadelphia, where she encouraged supporters to contribute money to keep her in the race.
Even with the victory, Clinton faces a steep climb in her quest for the nomination. Because the Democratic Party apportions delegates based on the popular vote, she's not likely to erode much of Obama's lead.
``The Clinton win in Pennsylvania keeps her going, for better or worse, no matter what the final margin, and it may be difficult for remaining superdelegates to jump to Obama for the moment,'' said David Redlawsk, a professor of political science at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Next Contests
Only nine contests remain, and the focus now turns to Indiana and North Carolina, where the next primaries are held May 6. Going into Pennsylvania, Obama led Clinton in the popular vote by more than 800,000. That excludes Michigan and Florida, which were stripped of delegates by the national party organization for holding early primaries.
He also led before today's primary in the number of Democratic convention delegates, who will decide the party nominee, 1,648 to 1,509, according to an unofficial tally by the Associated Press. A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. Pennsylvania had 158 delegates at stake in the primary.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, said the New York senator needs a big win in the state to encourage donors to fund her campaign through the rest of the race, which goes through the beginning of June.
``If she wins by seven, eight, nine, 10 points, I think she'll have a lot of money pouring in,'' he said in a Bloomberg Radio interview before the results were in.
Raising Money
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, another Clinton backer, said he planned to pick up the telephone tomorrow to call contributors and raise more money.
``We're going to widen the net,'' Corzine said in an interview in Philadelphia.
Obama left the state before voting ended at 8 p.m., local time, to fly to Indiana for the next stage of the campaign. In a speech there tonight, Obama portrayed the result as a measure of success for an underdog.
``There were a lot of folks who didn't think we could make this a race when it started,'' Obama said, referring to the Pennsylvania contest. ``Six weeks later, we closed the gap.''
Obama campaigned heavily in Pennsylvania trying to settle the Democratic contest. Clinton said that he outspent her in the state by 3-to-1.
``He broke every spending record in this state trying to knock us out of the race,'' she told a crowd of about 1,000 supporters. ``Well, the people of Pennsylvania had other ideas today.''
`Larger Task'
David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, told reporters that his candidate will put his main focus on McCain and the general election.
``We're going to participate vigorously in these primaries, but we have an eye also on the larger task which is to define this race for the fall,'' Axelrod said.
Exit polls conducted for television networks in Pennsylvania showed Clinton was getting 55 percent of women voters and 60 percent of the white vote. Obama led among men with 53 percent, and he was getting 92 percent of black voters.
The polls also showed that 54 percent of voters said they expect Obama will get the Democratic nomination, according to data cited by CNN.
Clinton supporters are counting on victories in big states such as Pennsylvania, California and Ohio to help her make the case to the roughly 300 undecided party superdelegates that she's the strongest candidate to beat the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, in November.
Neither candidate is likely to emerge at the end of the primary season with enough delegates won in primaries and caucuses to lock up the nomination. That will leave the decision in the hands of the superdelegates, elected and party officials who aren't bound by the results of those contests.
``The superdelegates that have held out for now cannot hold out for much longer,'' Pennsylvania Representative Joe Sestak, a Clinton supporter, said.
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