Obama Wins Nearly Unanimous Support Among African-Americans in N.C.
As noted, the racial makeup of the electorates themselves played a major role. Blacks accounted for 34 percent of North Carolina voters and 91 percent of them supported Obama. Against that voting bloc Clinton would have needed 70 percent of non-black voters; she fell well short, with 59 percent.
Obama also won nine in 10 blacks in Indiana. They accounted for 18 percent of voters there – far fewer than in North Carolina, but a record nonetheless for Indiana, surpassing 15 percent in 1988.
Clinton won white men in Indiana by 58-42 percent, and in North Carolina by 55-42 percent, both better than her total across all primaries this year, an essentially even 47-46 percent. However, she’s done as well with white men in some states before, including 57-43 percent in Pennsylvania and 58-39 percent in Ohio.
Indeed, race largely eclipsed sex as a factor in vote preferences: Clinton won white men and women by similar margins in both states; Obama, ditto.