Edwards easily won his native South Carolina, and Clark, a retired Army general from Arkansas, eked out a victory in neighboring Oklahoma. Howard Dean earned no wins and perhaps no delegates, his candidacy in peril. Joe Lieberman was shut out, too, and dropped out of the race.
“It’s a huge night,” Kerry told The Associated Press, even as rivals denied him a coveted sweep.
Racking up victories in Missouri, Arizona, North Dakota, New Mexico and Delaware, Kerry suggested that his rivals were regional candidates.
“I compliment John Edwards, but I think you have to run a national campaign, and I think that’s what we’ve shown tonight,” the four-term Massachusetts senator said. “You can’t cherry-pick the presidency.”
With Iowa and New Hampshire already in his pocket, Kerry boasts a record of 7-2 in primary season contests, the undisputed front-runner who had a chance to put two major rivals away but barely failed.
An AP analysis showed Kerry winning 65 pledged delegates, Edwards 43, Clark 5 and Al Sharpton 1, with 155 yet to be allocated. Kerry’s wins in Missouri and Arizona were the night’s biggest prizes, with 129 delegates — nearly half of the 269 at stake.
