Hillary Clinton is looking to the 22-state voting day of February 5 to clinch the Democratic nomination after winning Nevada on Saturday with overwhelming support from women, Hispanics and older voters.

Defeat for Barack Obama carried ominous signs for his hopes of winning the presidency. The two candidates spoke in black churches yesterday before their next showdown in South Carolina on Saturday. It is a state in which half of the Democratic electorate is African-American and Mr Obama, seeking to become America’s first black President, must win there to propel him into the nationwide “Super Tuesday” contests next month.

Even as Mrs Clinton was refusing to cede the black vote – she spoke at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and received the endorsement of its influential African-American pastor in her home state of New York – she and her aides were focusing on February 5. This date carries the biggest prizes in the nomination battle, including California, New York, New Jersey and a slew of western states, and is a nationwide contest that they believe favours her after the emergence of voting trends from her victories in New Hampshire and Nevada.

Mrs Clinton won the Nevada caucuses by 51 per cent to Mr Obama’s 46 per cent, amid allegations from both sides of dirty tricks and voter fraud. John Edwards was a distant third with 4 per cent. “I got my butt kicked,” Mr Edwards said. He vowed to carry on – he was born in South Carolina and won its primary when he ran for President four years ago – but is emerging as a potential kingmaker.

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Should Mr Edwards drop out, there is growing speculation that he may endorse Mr Obama. Mrs Clinton, however, enjoys strong support from blue-collar workers – the core constituency of Mr Edwards – and it is unclear whether they would follow his lead.

Mrs Clinton easily beat Mr Obama among women, especially those aged 45 and over, as she had in New Hampshire. Among whites she won by 51 per cent to 34 per cent, and among Hispanics by 64 per cent to 24 per cent, a demographic that carries particular significance for the western states of California, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. She was also favoured by voters who were worried about the economy, which is the leading issue for Democrats, beating Mr Obama by 49 per cent to 40 per cent.

Bill Clinton, greeting casino workers as they headed into a caucus site at the Mirage casino on the Las Vegas Strip, told The Times: “February 5 could be a decisive day. And I think Hispanics will make all the difference” – a message that is intended to encourage Latino turnout on Super Tuesday. Mr Obama lost badly among Hispanics, despite his endorsement in Nevada by the Culinary Workers Union, which is the biggest in the state and has a heavy Latino membership. It was a sign that, as an African-American, Mr Obama is struggling to overcome the historical antagonism between Latinos and blacks.

Mr Obama overwhelmed Mrs Clinton in Nevada among its black population, by 83 per cent to 14 per cent. Four Southern states with large African-American communities – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee – vote on Super Tuesday. Despite his recent setbacks, the race remains wide open.

Before heading to South Carolina, Mr Obama delivered an address at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where Martin Luther King was pastor. In front of a huge crowd, after hundreds had been turned away in freezing weather – and on the eve of Martin Luther King Day – Mr Obama preached a message of black personal empowerment through reconciliation and unity. He bemoaned an America in which skin colour still led to prejudice, and where nooses were hung from trees, but he called on the black community to look to itself, to be better parents, and to “acknowledge the deep-seated violence that still resides in our own communities”.

He went on: “Brothers and sisters . . . I ask you to walk with me . . . and together we will sing the song that tears down the walls that divide us, and lift up an America that is truly indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all.”

In a prerecorded interview being broadcast this morning, Mr Obama gave an indication of the bitter aftermath of the battle in Nevada, saying that Mr Clinton had taken “advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling”. He added: “He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts . . . This has become a habit and one of the things that we’re gonnna have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton.”

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