"We've got a long way to go," Sen. John McCain said after winning a hard-fought South Carolina primary last night to gain ground in an unpredictable race for the Republican presidential nomination.

And in Nevada yesterday, Hillary Rodham Clinton edged Barack Obama for the Demrocrats' votes while Republican Mitt Romney cruised to victory.

McCain, whose campaign was left for dead six months ago, quickly predicted that victory in the first southern primary would help him next week when Florida votes, and again on Feb. 5 when more than two dozen states hold primaries and caucuses.

Clinton won with 51 percent of the Nevada vote, while Obama took 45 percent and 4 percent chose former Sen. John Edwards, the result of a colorful and at times chaotic process that included caucuses held in casinos on the Las Vegas strip.

Clinton won almost every casino site and dominated among women and Latino voters, while Obama drew overwhelming support from African-Americans — a potential foreshadowing of how the race could develop when almost two dozen states vote on Feb. 5.

"I guess this is how the West was won," Clinton declared at a victory rally in Las Vegas. She thanked her supporters and said her win shows that "the Democrats — we're the problem solvers. We have the answers for what we need to do to keep our country strong and move with confidence and optimism into the future."

HELP FROM HAWAI'I

Obama got some last-minute help from his home state as volunteers in the Honolulu area yesterday phoned Nevada voters with ties to the Islands, urging them to get out and vote for their candidate.

"We spoke to as many as 70 people and helped some of them find caucus locations," said lawyer Andy Winer, referring to calls made by about seven volunteers from his office alone starting at 6:15 a.m. Hawai'i time.

In total, about 40 volunteers made more than 3,000 calls to Nevada this past week, said Winer, 47, Obama's political director in Hawai'i.

But despite a late endorsement by the powerful Culinary Workers' union, Obama failed to win enough support to produce new momentum after his initial burst of success. Since winning the Iowa caucuses at the beginning of the month, Obama has struggled to outpace Clinton in two consecutive contests and is now banking heavily on a victory Saturday in South Carolina, a state with a large African-American voting bloc.

"We ran an honest, uplifting campaign in Nevada that focused on the real problems Americans are facing, a campaign that appealed to people's hopes instead of their fears," Obama said in a statement.

GOP POINT OF REFERENCE

If the Democrats had co-front-runners heading into yesterday's caucuses, the Republicans had none, and looked to South Carolina to begin winnowing an unwieldy field.

McCain defeated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in a close race in the state that snuffed out his presidential hopes eight years ago. The Arizonan had 33 percent of the vote to 30 percent for his closest rival.

"Thank you, my friends, and thank you, South Carolina, for bringing us across the finish line first in the first-in-the-South primary. It took us a while. But what's eight years among friends?" McCain told a boisterous crowd of supporters on the campus of The Citadel. He stood on the stage with his wife, Cindy, as the crowd chanted, "Mac is back, Mac is back."

Appearing before supporters, Huckabee was a gracious loser, congratulating McCain for "running a civil and a good and a decent campaign."

Far from conceding defeat in the race, he added, "The process is far, far from over."

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson edged Romney for third place. California Rep. Duncan Hunter dropped out even before the votes were tallied.

Interviews with South Carolina voters leaving their polling places indicated that McCain, an Arizona senator, and Huckabee were dividing the Republican vote evenly. As was his custom, McCain was winning the votes of self-described independents.

The economy was the top issue in all three races on the ballot yesterday.

Republicans in Nevada and South Carolina cited immigration as their second-most-important concern. Among Democrats in Nevada, healthcare was the second-most-important issue followed by the Iraq war, which has dominated the race for months.

Interviews with Democratic caucus-goers indicated that Clinton won about half the votes cast by whites, and two-thirds support from Hispanics, many members of a Culinary Workers Union that had endorsed Obama. He won about 80 percent of the black vote.

Overall, Clinton gained support from about 51 percent of caucus-goers. Obama had the backing of 45 percent, and Edwards had 4 percent.

Obama had pinned his Nevada hopes on an outpouring of support from the 60,000-member Culinary union. But it appeared that turnout was lighter than expected at nine caucuses established along the Las Vegas Strip, and some attending held signs reading, "I support my union. I support Hillary."

BILL PITCHES IN ON STRIP

A factor that likely swayed the outcome on the Strip: former President Bill Clinton, who spent much of the past week gladhanding casino workers in employee lounges and the like.

"I really thought (Obama) was going to get more union support," said Anthony Edwards, who works in customer service at the Bellagio and caucused for the Illinois senator. But when the union started pushing Obama last week, after its endorsement, "a lot of people said, whoa, wait a minute. And today at least, they jumped off the union bandwagon."

Eddie Hunter, a Bellagio blackjack dealer, looked dejected as she returned to her post, Obama button still pinned to her blouse. "Hillary is good too, so I'm not surprised," she said. "Hearing people talk, I knew it was going to be close."

Xiao Jing Gu, a Bellagio housekeeper holding a sign, "I support my union. I support Hillary," said she was hooked by the Bill Clinton connection.

"He did so many good things for this country," she said. "Now his wife will do the same."

Early yesterday, Clinton made a campaign stop at the Mandalay Bay hotel, shaking hands and signing autographs in the employee cafeteria one level beneath the casino floor. She was greeted by cocktail waitresses in skimpy red dresses, casino dealers and food service workers, chanting "Hill-a-ry. Hill-a-ry."

Democrats look next to South Carolina to choose between Obama, the most viable black candidate in history, and Clinton, seeking to become the first woman to occupy the White House. After that, the race goes national on Feb. 5, with 1,678 national Democratic convention delegates at stake.

After the results were in, the Edwards campaign, engaged in an increasingly long-shot bid for the nomination, issued a statement from the former senator that promised he would continue on in the race.

"The race to the nomination is a marathon and not a sprint, and we're committed to making sure the voices of all the voters in the remaining 47 states are heard. The nomination won't be decided by win-loss records, but by delegates, and we're ready to fight for every delegate," Edwards said.

'KEEP 'EM COMING'

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, struck first on the day among the Republicans. He learned of his Nevada victory when his wife Ann announced it on the public address system of his chartered jet. "Keep 'em coming. Keep 'em coming," he said.

En route to Florida, he presented reporters with his ambitious economic stimulus plan, $233 billion in all. It includes tax rebates as well as tax cuts for individuals, as well as tax cuts for businesses.

Alone among the Republican contenders, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aired television ads in Nevada. Paul edged McCain for second place, ahead of Thompson and Huckabee.

The next GOP primary comes Jan. 29 in Florida, and recent polls show a four-way race among McCain, Huckabee, Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani has gambled heavily on Florida, bypassing the early primaries and caucuses in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina.

The Washington Post, Associated Press and Bloomberg News Service contributed to this report.