Exit Polls: In Obama Montana Win, Echoes of Iowa

By Jon Cohen
Barack Obama closed out the long Democratic nomination battle in Montana as he began it five months ago in Iowa, by scoring a big win in an overwhelmingly white state.

Poised to be the first African American atop a major party ticket, Obama beat Hillary Rodham Clinton in Montana by double-digits. He won white men in the state by a better than 2 to 1 margin, and matched Clinton among white women, for one of his better showings among those voters.

According to preliminary results from the network exit poll, younger voters were also crucial to Obama's Big Sky victory. Those under 30 years old broke for Obama by 4 to 1, equaling his biggest advantage of the campaign. He lost seniors by 12 points, but that was half as large as his average loss to Clinton among these voters.

While most South Dakota voters said the extended campaign did more to energize the Democratic Party, those in Montana were evenly split on whether the close fight would help or hurt. They were also closely divided about whether Obama should tap Clinton to be his No. 2: 50 percent said yes, 45 percent said no.