WASHINGTON — Senator Obama’s rout of Senator Clinton in three primaries across the Chesapeake region yesterday solidifies his lead in pledged delegates and leaves the Clinton campaign reeling as it girds for crucial contests in Texas and Ohio next month.

Mr. Obama captured decisive victories in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, defeating the former first lady by 29 points in Virginia and as much as 51 points in the nation’s capital.

The Illinois senator had been expected to win all three contests, but the wide margins of victory and his strength in key demographics were striking.

The wins will hand Mr. Obama the bulk of the 168 pledged delegates at stake in the “Potomac Primary,” with news organizations projecting that Mr. Obama now tops Mrs. Clinton in total delegates even when the superdelegates, which favor the New York senator, are factored in.

“Today the change we seek swept through the Chesapeake and over the Potomac,” Mr. Obama told a rally of thousands in Madison, Wis.
Mr. Obama cautioned that the election was far from over, but in a swipe at Mrs. Clinton, he said the victory signaled a vindication of his message. “We also know that at this moment, the cynics can no longer say that our hope is false,” he said.

Both candidates were already looking ahead last night to the next elections where they see their best shot of winning. To that end, Mr. Obama was in Wisconsin, which votes with Hawaii on February 19.

Mrs. Clinton appeared in Texas, which along with Ohio has become a must-win state for her if she hopes to blunt Mr. Obama’s surge in momentum. Both primaries will be held March 4.

She ignored the Potomac losses entirely as she addressed a rally in El Paso, using blanket coverage of her appearance on the cable networks to deliver her stump speech before a national audience.

With 99% of the precincts reporting, Mr. Obama had topped Mrs. Clinton, 64% to 35%, in Virginia. In the District of Columbia, he was ahead 75% to 24%, with 97% of the precincts reporting. In Maryland, with 47% of the precincts reporting, Mr. Obama had 62% and Mrs. Clinton 35%.

On the Republican side, Senator McCain of Arizona held off Michael Huckabee in a surprisingly close contest in Virginia, winning 50% to 41% with 99% of the precincts reporting. Leading Mr. Huckabee in delegates by a three-to-one margin, Mr. McCain is considered the likely Republican nominee, but the strong showing by the former Arkansas governor served as another indication that he has yet to consolidate support among conservatives in the party base.

Mr. McCain had campaigned lightly across the region in recent days as he began planning for a general election. He beat Mr. Huckabee handily in Maryland and Washington, D.C., moving him closer to the 1,191 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

Addressing supporters in Alexandria, Va., Mr. McCain lauded Mr. Huckabee and said his “spirited campaign” was a “credit to him and our party.” He acknowledged that the race in Virginia was tighter than expected, suggesting the results were a wake-up call.

“He certainly keeps things interesting, a little too interesting at times tonight, I must confess,” Mr. McCain said of Mr. Huckabee in prepared remarks. “But I have even more reason to appreciate just how formidable a campaigner he is.”

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign was also roiled yesterday by comments made by her top Pennsylvania surrogate, Governor Rendell, suggesting that race could play a role when Democrats in his state vote in a potentially crucial primary on April 22. “You’ve got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate,” Mr. Rendell told an editorial board meeting of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The governor went on to cite as an example his own victory in 2006 over Lynn Swann, the African-American Republican nominee.

Mr. Obama himself has made similar remarks over the course of the campaign, but Mr. Rendell’s statement is likely unhelpful to Mrs. Clinton, who has struggled to tone down racial tensions that emerged during the South Carolina primary in January.

A Clinton campaign spokesman, Blake Zeff, pointed to Mrs. Clinton’s statement at a Democratic debate last month, when she said: “I think what’s most important is that Senator Obama and I agree completely that, you know, neither race nor gender should be a part of this campaign.”

Also yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Mrs. Clinton’s deputy campaign manager, Michael Henry, had resigned. Mr. Henry’s departure comes two days after Mrs. Clinton replaced her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, with a longtime adviser, Maggie Williams.

Last night’s results give Mr. Obama seven consecutive victories over Mrs. Clinton since Super Tuesday, when the two candidates essentially fought to a tie in 22 states across the country. The Illinois senator now has captured nearly twice as many contested states as Mrs. Clinton, 21 to 11, and he is adding to his lead in pledged delegates.

The battle for superdelegates — the 800 or so party leaders not bound by primary results — remained unsettled, however. Thanks to the deep party ties she and her husband have forged, Mrs. Clinton has led consistently among those electors, but the Obama campaign has argued that superdelegates should eventually bow to the will of the voters and support the candidate that wins the most pledged delegates. A top Obama supporter, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts, said on CNN yesterday that superdelegates backing Mrs. Clinton would “begin to waver” if Mr. Obama continued to rack up primary victories. Yet he dismissed the argument offered by Mrs. Clinton that under that rationale, Mr. Kerry and Senator Kennedy would have to back her because of her win in Massachusetts.

One Clinton loyalist in New York, Rep. Gregory Meeks, said he felt no pressure to ditch Mrs. Clinton despite voters in his Queens district having backed Mr. Obama.

“My constituents elected me to lead,” Mr. Meeks said in an interview yesterday.

He also downplayed the level of concern in the Clinton campaign and the perception that Mr. Obama’s string of victories will make him difficult if not impossible to stop. “I see Senator Obama having a great month of February, and I see Senator Clinton having a greater March and April,” Mr. Meeks said. “It’s just the ebb and flow of the campaign. It wasn’t over when he won Iowa, and it wasn’t over when she won New Hampshire.”