Hispanics, young voters, women help Obama win

Obama also contributed to an Election Day sweep in New Mexico that put the state‘s entire congressional delegation in Democratic hands for the first time in 40 years.

"We don‘t need another Bush in there," said John Marquez, 44, an Albuquerque Democrat who supported Obama. "We need to get the Republicans out. They‘re driving us under. We‘ve got to put the country back in order."

Geography also was key. Obama picked up a majority of voters in the Albuquerque area, the state‘s population center, and claimed more than 2-1 support in the traditionally Democratic northern half of the state.

Obama engineered a similar victory in Nevada, where he won overwhelming support from minority voters.

More than half of Nevada women backed Obama, while men supported McCain and Obama about evenly, the poll said.

In New Mexico, new voters — nearly three-quarters of them under 30 — flocked to Obama. They backed him almost 3-1 over McCain. About one in eight voters said this was the first year they had cast a ballot. A majority of new voters were Hispanic.

In the New Mexico congressional delegation, all three incumbents — Republicans Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce and Democrat Tom Udall — gave up their seats to run for the Senate post being vacated by retiring Republican Pete Domenici.

And Pearce and Wilson‘s open seats in the House went to Democrats: Martin Heinrich, a former Albuquerque city councilman, defeated GOP candidate Darren White, a county sheriff. And oilman Harry Teague, another Democrat, beat GOP businessman Ed Tinsley.

In 2000, Democrat Al Gore won the state by just 366 votes. In 2004, New Mexico went for Bush by fewer than 6,000 votes, making it one of only two states that shifted from blue to red that year.

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Associated Press writers Catherine Tsai in Denver and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas contributed to this report.



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