GOP's Huckabee, Dems' Obama win Iowa caucuses

DES MOINES -- Barack Obama won Thursday's Iowa Democratic caucuses and Mike Huckabee was the victor in the GOP race, providing major boosts to both campaigns with the New Hampshire primary only days away.

With 86% of precincts reporting, Huckabee had 34% of the GOP vote, followed by Mitt Romney with 25%, Fred Thompson and John McCain with 13% and Ron Paul with 10%.

On the Democratic side, with 98% of precincts reporting, Obama had 38% of the vote, followed by John Edwards with 30% and Hillary Rodham Clinton with 29%.

"I'm amazed, but I'm encouraged, because what we've seen is a new day in American politics," said Huckabee.

Huckabee a former minister and Arkansas governor, was heavily outspent by Romney in Iowa but was ahead in recent polls. He was depending on strong support from the state's evangelical community.

"The first thing we've learned is people really are more important than the purse. What a great lesson for America to learn," he said.

More than half of Republican caucus voters said they were born-again or evangelical Christians, and nearly half of them supported Huckabee, according to entrance interviews by the Associated Press and the television networks. Romney led among non-evangelical voters by 2-to-1 or more.

"I've been pleased that I've been able to make up ground and I intend to keep making up ground, not just here but across the country," Romney said after the election. As a former governor from neighboring Massachusetts, Romney's prospects in New Hampshire may be stronger than they were in Iowa.

Obama, a senator from neighboring Illinois, is bidding to become the nation's first black president. He won the caucuses in a state that was 94.6% white in 2006, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

"On this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do," Obama told cheering supporters. "We came together as Democrats, Republicans and independents to say we are one nation, we are one people, and our time has come."