Illinois Senator Barack Obama leads his Democratic White House rivals in Iowa, while Hillary Clinton boasts a solid advantage in New Hampshire, two polls out Wednesday found. Iowa's caucuses and New Hampshire's primary, January 3 and 8 respectively, are the first US presidential nominating contests.
In Iowa, Obama, who would be the first African-American US president, is drawing 33 percent support against 29 for Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady seeking to be the first woman elected US president.
They are trailed by senator John Edwards with 20 percent of the vote, according to the poll in The Washington Post. Other Democrats trail the leading three distantly.
The December 13-17 poll of Democratic voters has a margin of error of four percent. A separate survey by CNN television on the New Hampshire contest meanwhile found Clinton winning the support of 39 percent of voters compared to 26 percent for Obama. That marks a seven-point gain for Clinton compared to a week earlier, while Obama lost four percent. On the Republican side, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was leading with 34 percent support (up two percent), trailed by Arizona senator John McCain with 22 percent (up two percent) and New York former mayor Rudolph Giuliani with 16 percent (down two percent).