John McCain won the Missouri Republican primary Tuesday, and Democratic candidate Barack Obama pulled out a win after a long drawn-out count.

Obama ended up with about 10,000 votes more than Hillary Clinton. FOX News waited to call the race when it was determined that late vote returns around St. Louis County showed large turnout could give Obama the expected boost he needed to surpass Clinton's half point lead.

FOX News eventually called the race around 12:32 a.m. ET. More than one hour earlier, The Associated Press had called the race for Clinton. It later withdrew its call and reversed it at 2:48 a.m. ET.

Obama won 49.2 percent to Clinton's 48 percent with more than 820,453 votes cast. Of the 72 delegates at stake, 56 have been awarded, with Clinton and Obama each receiving 28.

McCain won the last Republican winner-take-all state Tuesday night to give him victories in six of the nine being contested. The call for him came at 11:53 a.m. ET.

Missouri voters said the economy is the most important issue the next president will take on, according to exit polls. More than 90 percent of Democrats rated the economy as not good or poor. Republican also gave the economy poor ratings.

Missouri is known as a bellwether state, having picked the winner of every presidential election except one in the past 100 years -- in 1956, when Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.