TMP Online

TMP editor, Chuka Umunna (left), reports on a remarkable victory for the junior Senator from Illinois.

Senator Barack Obama has won the Democratic caucuses in Iowa giving him that crucial momentum – the big “mo” – to help carry him through to the next stages of the race to win the U.S. Democratic Party’s presidential nomination for the November presidential election.

Obama (below) won 37.6% of the vote to John Edwards’ 29.7%, with Hillary Clinton trailing in third place on 29.5%. Of the other contenders, Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd have now bowed out of the Democratic race having failed to make an impact.

Obama’s victory is a remarkable feat for an African American, given over 95% of the population of the state is white. He is believed to have benefited from a high turn out and the relatively mild weather conditions.

TMP caught up with Iowan Stephanie Tingley during the campaign, who remarked how “Obama has been working the high schools and targeting first time voters in a way Hillary [Clinton] has not”.

Tingley met all of the candidates during the Iowa caucus campaign and her mother had been working on Clinton’s campaign in Council Bluffs, Iowa. “Obama certainly has a warmth and presence about him which the others do not, though I thought Clinton came across much better in the flesh than on the television” she said.

Though many high school students are not of voting age at present, many will be in November when the Presidential election takes place, so were entitled to take part in the caucuses. Obama did many high school rallies and has also been using other techniques to target independent and first time voters and across party boundaries.

You can watch Obama’s victory speech below:

All of the candidates have now flown to New Hampshire where campaigning has already started in earnest. Obama has work to do to carry his victory through to that state where Clinton (on 34%) has a 7 point lead over him (on 27%) in the latest poll of polls. The Obama team will be hoping that victory in Iowa will help close the gap.