(Reuters)
Updated: 2008-02-10 10:12

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama won Democratic presidential contests in Nebraska and Washington state on Saturday, striking the latest blows in the back-and-forth battle with Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination.

Nebraska and Washington, with a combined 102 delegates at stake, were the latest battlegrounds in a deadlocked race between Obama and Clinton where every delegate to this summer's nominating convention has become crucial. Louisiana Democrats also voted.

Among Republicans, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee easily won the presidential contest in Kansas, showing signs of life in a nominating race front-runner John McCain has nearly sewed up.

Huckabee captured about 60 percent of the vote in Kansas, more than double McCain's total. Nebraska and Washington also vote on Saturday in the Republican race to choose a candidate in November's presidential election.

"This race is far from being over," Huckabee told reporters after crushing McCain, just two days after the Arizona senator became the all-but-certain nominee with the withdrawal of his chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Huckabee is now the only major opponent for McCain, who has rolled up more than 700 of the 1,191 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination at this summer's convention. Texas Rep. Ron Paul also remains in the race.

McCain still faces widespread opposition from conservatives unhappy with his views on immigration, tax cuts and other issues. Huckabee promised at a conference of conservative activists to continue his shoestring campaign, which has made inroads with social and religious conservatives.

"Am I quitting? Let's get that settled right now. No, I'm not," Huckabee said to cheers at a Washington hotel. He promised to continue at least until McCain clinched the nomination.

"I know that I won't drop out until at least that happens and then we'll see," he told reporters, denying he was hoping to become McCain's vice-presidential running mate.

He shrugged off a call from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a McCain supporter, urging him to drop out. "Since he was endorsing my opponent, it rang a little hollow to me," he said.

"I did not major in math, but I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them," Huckabee said at a rally at the University of Maryland in College Park.

US media projected that Obama had won the caucuses in Nebraska and Washington. New York Sen. Clinton and Illinois Sen. Obama are about even in pledged delegates but well short of the 2,025 needed to win nomination.

Obama, who would be the first black US president, was the favorite in all three contests. In Louisiana, he was expected to benefit from a high percentage of black voters, his strongest supporters.