COLUMBUS - Former first lady Hillary Clinton on Tuesday won a huge boost to her flagging bid to be America's first woman president by winning the Ohio primaries, US media said.
It was Clinton's second victory of the night over Democratic rival Barack Obama, after she earlier took Rhode Island, to end a 12-win streak by the young Illinois senator, CNN, Fox and MSNBC networks said.
With 55 percent of the precincts counted, Clinton was ahead in Ohio by 58 percent to 40 percent. Obama earlier won Vermont.
But the fourth Democratic nominating contest of the night in Texas was still too close to call, where under a complicated system Texans were voting twice -- first in a primary and then later in evening caucuses.
Clinton badly needed a win to stay in the race after a string of damaging defeats by Obama, as the two rivals chase the Democratic Party's nomination to stand in the November elections.
Tuesday's four contests saw John McCain anointed as the Republican Party candidate and he gave notice that he intended to fight hard on issues of national security and the war in Iraq.
And Clinton's wins means the Democratic White House battle is likely to drag on to other primaries down the line, including Wyoming on Saturday and Pennsylvania on April 22.
Ahead of Tuesday's votes, Obama had slightly more delegates than Clinton in the race to lock down the 2,025 needed to secure party's nomination.
But Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally so no clear winner was likely to emerge from Tuesday's votes.
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03/05/2008 04:17 GMT