LAS VEGAS - Senator John McCain of Arizona and former governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts moved to the front of the Republican presidential pack yesterday, as McCain captured a coveted victory in the Republican primary in South Carolina, a bellwether Southern state with a history of predicting the party's nominees, and Romney notched another success by winning Nevada's GOP caucuses.
In the one Democratic contest, Senator Hillary Clinton scored the first Western win of the race by beating Senator Barack Obama in the popular vote in Nevada's caucuses, though Obama appeared to emerge with one more delegate than Clinton because his support was broader across the state.
McCain's narrow victory over former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in South Carolina - a state that eluded McCain in the 2000 race - puts him in a strong position heading into the Republi cans' next big test, Florida's primary on Jan. 29, and into the nearly two dozen states that hold primaries or caucuses Feb. 5.
With 93 percent of the precincts reporting last night, McCain was leading Huckabee 33 percent to 30 percent.
McCain's win inks the latest chapter in his remarkable political revival, both in South Carolina and in the 2008 campaign. Eight years ago, his loss in the state to George W. Bush effectively ended his presidential campaign, and just months ago his campaign was nearly broke and not expected to last long in the primary season.
Speaking to supporters in Charleston, a beaming McCain said, "you and I are aware that for the last 28 years, the winner of the South Carolina primary has been the nominee of our party."
"We have a ways to go, my friends," he said. "But we're well on our way tonight."
But Romney, who won Nevada easily after no other candidate strongly contested the state, has now won three states, putting him squarely back into contention for the GOP nomination after two disappointing second-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Romney learned of his Nevada victory while flying on his chartered campaign jet from Las Vegas to Florida. His wife, Ann, announced his victory over the plane's public address system while he was speaking with reporters.
The Nevada win, Romney later said in Florida, was "huge for us, and we're very, very pleased." He said his three wins - Nevada, his home state of Michigan, and an earlier caucus in Wyoming - showed that he is not concentrating on just a few ,but waging a broad-based campaign.
"I'm not looking just to get a couple high-profile victories. I want to get delegates and I want to win this nomination," Romney said.
With McCain and Romney ascendant, the rest of the GOP field now face uncertain fates. Huckabee, whose evangelical base and Southern roots could not overcome McCain's appeal to South Carolina's military families and more moderate coastal residents, now faces an uphill battle. Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson's apparent third-place finish in South Carolina, barely ahead of Romney, could be a fatal blow to Thompson's candidacy.
"Obviously we wanted to come here tonight and declare a South Carolina victory. We got awfully close," Huckabee told supporters in Columbia, S.C. But, he said, "Politics, and particularly this year, more than any other - this is not an event. It is a process, and the process is far, far from over."
A Republican candidate, US Representative Duncan Hunter of California, ended his presidential bid yesterday after failing to crack the upper tiers of the GOP field.
Clinton's victory in Nevada was her second straight, following her New Hampshire win on Jan. 8. It sets up a critical contest between Clinton and Obama in this Saturday's South Carolina Democratic primary.
"I guess this is how the West was won," an ebullient Clinton told cheering supporters who chanted her initials, "HRC, HRC!" Despite a campaign that became testy among the three leading Democratic contenders, "we will all be united in November," she said, holding up clasped hands with her daughter, Chelsea, and former president Bill Clinton.
With 98 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton had 50.7 percent of the vote to 45.2 percent for Obama and a disappointing 3.8 percent for former North Carolina senator John Edwards, who had once hoped to win Nevada by drawing on his strong backing from organized labor.
Clinton beat Obama handily among women, white voters, and Latinos, but his support was more spread out across the state. Obama, under the complex caucus rules, appeared to emerge with more national convention delegates than Clinton - 13 to 12 - allowing his camp to claim at least a technical win.
"We're thrilled at how broad our support was here today in Nevada . . . which did produce a win for us," David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said on a conference call last night.
Clinton's campaign rejected that assertion, saying national convention delegates are not technically selected for another few months. Asked about the delegate count at a news conference, Clinton sought to claim victory from her win in the popular vote.
"Obviously, you know, this is about delegates, but it's also about what people are voting for and who they think the best president will be," she said.
The outcome was still a setback for Obama and the Culinary Workers Union, which had endorsed him and had hoped to make its power known by delivering him a decisive win.
The group - which represents most unionized casino workers in Nevada - had bused members to nine special at-large caucus sites on the Las Vegas Strip. Union leaders believed a big turnout by the 60,000-member group would give Obama the edge in a state where Clinton has longtime ties.
But the New York senator erased any advantage the culinary union brought Obama. Indeed, some of the culinary workers said they felt no obligation to back their union's endorsed candidate.
"Hillary! Hillary!" housekeepers in rust and white maids' outfits shouted at a caucus at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, waving signs that said: "I support my union. I support Hillary."
Obama supporters yelled back at the raucous event, which many participants said marked the first time they had ever voted in Nevada. "We want a change!" the Obama backers shouted, waving union-stamped signs with Obama's picture.
The Nevada caucuses drew a record turnout - roughly 45,000 Republicans and 116,000 Democrats. Those results matched what has happened in Iowa and New Hampshire, where Democrats turned out in far greater numbers. The turnout could prove critical in November, because Nevada - which has voted Republican in recent presidential elections - now is considered a battleground state.
For Republicans, the Nevada results followed the poll predictions: With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Romney had about 51.1 percent of the vote to about 13.7 percent for Representative Ron Paul and 12.7 percent for McCain.
Romney had been favored in recent surveys, buoyed in part by the state's Mormon population. An Associated Press entrance poll indicated that Romney had received nine out of 10 Mormon votes. And while other GOP candidates battled it out in South Carolina, Romney campaigned hard in Nevada.
Susan Milligan reported from Las Vegas and Scott Helman from Boston. Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.
