Clinton will stay in race, senior advisers say

Senior advisers to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that she would continue to fight for the Democratic nomination despite losing ground to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) Tuesday in the race for delegates.
                  
Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s campaign communications director, said there has been no discussion within the campaign about dropping out.
            
He said that the West Virginia primary scheduled for May 13 would be a critical test and that Clinton expected to do well there.

Obama beat Clinton by 14 points in North Carolina, despite some polling that showed Clinton had narrowed her rival’s lead to single digits days before the primary. The victory was significant for Obama because North Carolina will allocate 115 pledged delegates, more than any other state remaining on the primary calendar.
            
Demonstrating her resolve to stay in the race, Clinton has dipped into financial assets jointly held with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to fund her campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Wolfson said that Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million in April, and $1.4 million in May.

In total, Clinton has loaned $11.4 million in personal funds to the campaign, more than she earned from her book, “Living History,” and her Senate salary.

Clinton’s chief campaign strategist Geoff Garin said Clinton made up ground against Obama in Indiana and North Carolina and among white voters.

Garin told reporters in a conference call Wednesday that Clinton trailed Obama in Indiana by 8 points in internal polls less than two weeks before the primary. She ended up beating Obama by two points.

Garin said that Clinton and Obama polled evenly among white voters in North Carolina weeks before the primary.

Exit polls Tuesday showed that she ultimately won the support of 55 percent of white men and 65 percent of white women in North Carolina. Obama won the support of about 90 percent of black voters in the state, which is slightly more than 21 percent African-American.