Clinton pulls out narrow Nevada win

Hillary Clinton was projected to pull out a narrow victory over Bernie Sanders in Nevada's Democratic caucuses that will help right her campaign but also illustrated her vulnerabilities in the nomination race.

Clinton held off a late surge from Sanders after seemingly having the state locked up as the presidential nomination was getting underway. She had 52 percent of the caucus vote to 48 percent for Sanders with two-thirds of precincts counted, according to results released by the Nevada Democratic Party.

She made a strong showing in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, which has almost 75 percent of the state's 2.8 million residents.

After winning by less than a percentage point in Iowa and suffering a drubbing in New Hampshire, Clinton's campaign was counting on a strong showing in Nevada to assert her control over the party fight heading into next Saturday's South Carolina primary and on Super Tuesday, March 1, when 11 states hold primaries or caucuses.

Clinton still holds an edge in South Carolina, where she led Sanders by 22 percentage points in a Bloomberg Politics poll released on Feb. 18.

However Clinton's margin in Nevada may foreshadow a longer nomination fight than many Democrats expected last year when the campaigns were getting underway. She came out almost 6 percentage points ahead of then-Senator Barack Obama in 2008. If Sanders holds on to the margin it would put a dent in one of the Clinton campaign's main arguments against him -- that his decisive victory in New Hampshire came in a state with a predominantly white population that rallied to him as a favorite son from neighboring Vermont -- by showing his appeal crossed regional and ethnic boundaries.

The Nevada caucuses award 23 delegates toward the Democratic nomination. There also are eight super delegates and 12 other at-large or party leader and elected official delegates from the state. A candidate needs 2,382 to secure the nomination. Going into Saturday's caucuses, Clinton had 483 delegates, including party leaders and elected officials, to Sanders' 55, according to an estimate compiled by the Associated Press.