Obama wins Wyoming, blunts Clinton push

Party officials reported extremely high turnout at caucus sites across the state. In Laramie County, more than 1,500 came to cast votes at the caucus site, quickly filling the auditorium in downtown Cheyenne. Hundreds waited outside for hours until they could enter and vote.

Wyoming Democrats, usually a lonely bunch in an overwhelmingly Republican state, basked in their moment in the spotlight. “Wyoming, this is our 15 minutes,” Kathy Karpan, a former Wyoming secretary of state who supported Clinton, said on Saturday morning.

Obama beat Clinton by 23 points. He appeared to have to won seven new delegates, while she will probably gain five. While both Clinton and Obama pushed hard to win the state, the Obama campaign’s early organising here appeared to have paid off.

David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, said on Saturday afternoon that the Wyoming victory was “evidence that Senator Obama is going to be able to put more states in play. “This is a big win for us,” Plouffe said. “You saw very furious campaigning by the Clinton campaign here.” Coupled with victories in Colorado, Nebraska and Washington state, he said, the result in Wyoming “speaks to Senator Obama’s strength in the West.”

Maggie Williams, Clinton’s campaign manager, issued a statement saying the campaign was “thrilled with this near split in delegates.” Clinton’s decision to focus on Wyoming was a tactical departure for a campaign that had played down the importance of such caucus states, essentially ceding many of them to Obama, while deriding the caucus process as undemocratic.

But with Obama collecting 11 victories in these contests, and with Clinton determined to cut into his stubborn lead in delegates, the Clinton campaign deployed Chelsea Clinton...