Dems Encircle Vital Virginia

Forget Yorktown and Manassas: Virginia will weigh in on a new war Tuesday, as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton make the state the next key Democratic battleground. Watchers had thought Obama would sweep the so-called Potomac Primary—in Virginia, Maryland, and DC—but Clinton is looking for a crucial stand in the Mother of Presidents, the Washington Post reports.

One-quarter of Dems are black, and the primary will see many highly educated, upper-income, and independent voters; Obama is also aided by support from Gov. Tim Kaine. But Clinton sees strengths in growing exurbs and in under-employed white voters in the rural southwest. One pollster noted “there is no primary history” in Virginia, which may prove “a void of unknowns.” (More Hillary Clinton stories.)