U.S. presidential candidates are campaigning in (the northeastern U.S. state of) New Hampshire for next week's key primary election, after Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee won Thursday's Iowa caucuses.
Candidates arrived in New Hampshire early (Friday) after the Iowa contest, the first test of the 2008 presidential race. Obama, a first-term U.S. senator from (the midwestern state of) Illinois, easily defeated former Senator John Edwards and New York Senator and former first lady Hillary Clinton (, who finished second and third respectively) in the Democratic Party caucuses.
Senator Obama told cheering supporters in Iowa that he wants to unify the United States after years of political divisions between Democrats and Republicans. Obama, who became the first person of African descent to win in Iowa, is seeking to become the first black U.S. president. On the Republican side, Huckabee counted on strong support from evangelical Christians to beat former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, told his supporters that "a new day" is needed in both American politics and government.