Unwilling to cede any territory after a blowout victory in the Kentucky primary and a substantial loss to Barack Obama in Oregon, Hillary Clinton headed to Florida Wednesday, hoping to make sure Sunshine State voters are not eliminated from the final Democratic presidential nomination count.

Clinton was to meet with Florida voters ahead of the May 31 Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting, which will determine whether to lift the penalty on Florida and Michigan Democrats for holding their primaries before Super Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Not to be outdone, Obama was also headed to Florida to hold a rally in Tampa with Reps. Robert Wexler and Kathy Castor before attending a town-hall meeting in Kissimmee and an evening fundraiser in Orlando.

The rules committee meeting comes just one day before the candidates vie in another primary on June 1, when Puerto Rico votes. South Dakota and Montana follow two days later in the final contests of the Democratic primary season.

Obama can capture the nomination by then if he wins enough of the remaining undeclared superdelegates. He confidently claimed a majority of pledged delegates for the Democratic nomination leading up to his win in Oregon Tuesday night.

Obama had won at least 1,649.5 pledged delegates in the 56 total primaries and caucuses, surpassing the 1,627 needed to claim a majority, without Florida and Michigan. His campaign quickly issued a memo to supporters saying Obama had reached a critical “milestone” in his march toward the nomination.

“We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people, and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States,” Obama told voters at a packed rally in Des Moines, Iowa, the site of his Jan. 3 caucus triumph.

But with the results from Oregon, Obama was still shy of the 2,026 delegate majority needed to claim the nomination.

Clinton has repeatedly said that the race isn’t over until every vote is counted. Speaking to supporters in Kentucky, and again in a letter to supporters after her win, she questioned why every time pundits declare her candidacy over, she wins another state.

“We showed America that the voters know what the ‘experts’ will never understand — that in our great democracy, elections are about more than candidates running, pundits commenting, or ads blaring,” Clinton wrote. “They’re about every one of us having his or her say about the path we choose as a nation. The people of Kentucky have declared that this race isn’t over yet, and I’m listening to them — and to you.”

Hoping to push up her numbers — and the threshold needed to win the nomination — the Clinton camp has been calculating ways to gain an advantage from Florida and Michigan.

One proposal for the two states that has not been rejected by the Clinton campaign is a plan to count the 185 pledged Florida delegates and 128 pledged Michigan delegates as 0.5 each and distribute them according to the vote in January’s Florida and Michigan primaries.

Clinton won Florida, 50-33 percent over Obama. John Edwards won 14 percent in that vote, though none of the candidates campaigned there. In Michigan, Clinton was the only first-tier candidate whose name appeared on the ballot. She won 55 percent of the vote there compared to 40 percent who voted “uncommitted.”

Edwards has endorsed Obama and said he encourages his backers to pledge their support for the Illinois senator. If Florida delegates were counted at their full value, Clinton would have won 105 delegates to Obama’s 67 and Edwards’ 13. In Michigan, Clinton would have 73 pledged delegates compared to 55 who were uncommitted and would likely be given to Obama. The nominee would then need 2,209 delegates to win the nomination.

One proviso behind approval of the plan is that superdelegates in the state be counted as whole votes. Clinton has earned the support of at least eight Florida superdelegates compared to at least five for Obama. She has at least seven Michigan superdelegates compared to five for Obama from Michigan.

“I believe they’re going to count them,” McAuliffe predicted about the rules committee’s eventual decision on seating Florida and Michigan delegates. “We’re not going to disenfranchise two of our key states. And when that process is done, I do believe that the superdelegates are going to say, ‘Who is it that best can win the general election?’”

The Clinton campaign has argued that unlike Obama, Clinton can carry swing states that are essential to a general election victory. Kentucky and West Virginia, two states that Clinton won by at least 35 points, both voted Democratic in 1992 and 1996, but Republican in 2000 and 2004. The campaign notes that large percentages of Democratic voters in those states have said they’d rather stay home or vote for John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, than for Obama.

“That’s going to weigh on the minds of the superdelegates to say who can best go up against John McCain,” McAuliffe told FOX News.

But the Obama campaign has countered that Clinton’s claim to be the better general election candidate is specious. Campaign aides cite a March 2000 Pew survey that showed 51 percent of McCain primary voters said they would not vote for Bush, but the GOP obviously came together by November 2000. This, the argument goes, indicates that Democrats will do the same come this November.

As Obama gets closer to reaching the crucial mark for claiming the majority of delegates, his surrogates are urging Clinton to give up. The Service Employees International Union issued a statement after Obama’s Oregon victory, saying Clinton can’t beat the numbers.

“Now that (Obama) has a majority of the pledged delegates, the time has come for Democrats to unite around his candidacy said Anna Burger, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer. “While we congratulate Senator Clinton for running a campaign that focused the country on the critical issues we face together, it is time for her to join the effort to send Barack Obama to the White House.”

PORTLAND, Ore. — The speaker of the Oregon House on Tuesday narrowly won a chance to challenge the sole GOP senator on the West Coast, defeating a fiery political activist who made light of the fact that he has a metal hook for a left hand.

Across the country in Kentucky, a millionaire businessman who grew up on a tobacco farm captured that state’s Democratic Senate nomination, winning a crack at Republican leader Mitch McConnell, the powerful four-term incumbent with a big campaign bankroll.

In the Oregon primary, House Speaker Jeff Merkley ran as the establishment candidate after he was recruited by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to try to unseate Republican Sen. Gordon Smith in the fall.

With 65 percent of precincts reporting, Merkley had nearly 46 percent of the vote, compared with 41 percent for Steve Novick, who gained traction with lighthearted campaign videos that poked fun at the prosthesis he uses because of birth defects.

Smith, who easily beat a token challenger, is the only Republican holding statewide office in Oregon, which has voted more Democratic in recent elections. He has pledged to raise $10 million or more for his re-election to a third term.

Elsewhere in Oregon, a testy congressional contest took shape in the state’s 5th District, where Democratic Rep. Darlene Hooley’s surprise retirement set the stage for one of the most competitive House races in the country.

Mike Erickson, a wealthy businessman, won the Republican nomination despite allegations by an opponent that Erickson got a girlfriend pregnant, then paid for her abortion.

Erickson denied the accusations, calling them a desperate campaign attack by rival Kevin Mannix, a former lawmaker and state GOP chairman.

In the fall, Erickson will go up against Democratic state Sen. Kurt Schrader, chairman of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee, who beat a longtime adviser to former Gov. John Kitzhaber.

In the contest to challenge McConnell, Bruce Lunsford handily defeated seven other Democrats, including Greg Fischer, a Louisville entrepreneur who made a fortune partly by co-inventing an ice and beverage dispenser now commonplace in restaurants.

Lunsford and Fischer both put some of their personal fortunes into their campaigns.

McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, easily defeated his sole opponent in the GOP primary, little-known truck driver Daniel Essek.

The fall matchup between McConnell and Lunsford could turn into a bruising, free-spending fight. McConnell raised more than $12 million in campaign cash through March. Lunsford spent about $14 million of his own money in his gubernatorial campaigns in 2003 and 2007. He failed to advance beyond the primary both times.

Lunsford touted his humble roots growing up on a Kentucky tobacco farm and working on a road crew to help put him through college. But he also has a jet-set lifestyle as a partner in a movie production company.

In Arkansas, an appeals court judge was voted off the bench after waging a battle over the last six years with a state ethics panel over whether he had a right to speak publicly on non-judicial issues such as the war in the Iraq.

Tuesday’s re-election was the first for Judge Wendell Griffen since he was questioned by the panel about comments criticizing the Bush administration. The Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission eventually dropped the matter.

Griffen was appointed to the appellate court in 1996 and won re-election without opposition in 2000.

Back in Kentucky, former Rep. Carroll Hubbard, who served more than two years in federal prison following the House banking scandal, won a place on the November ballot for a state Senate seat.

Hubbard, who started his political career representing the district nearly 40 years ago, was defeated in the 1992 Democratic primary because of fallout from the scandal.

Hillary Clinton scored a blowout victory in the Kentucky Democratic primary Tuesday, hours before Barack Obama confidently claimed a majority of pledged delegates for the Democratic nomination with a win in Oregon.

Obama was winning by about 16 points with 86 percent of the votes in, in Oregon’s all mail-in primary.

The Obama campaign quickly calculated Tuesday evening that it had achieved what it called a critical “milestone” in Obama’s seemingly inexorable march toward the nomination. With the expected results from Oregon, Obama has a majority of the pledged delegates, but not a majority among all delegates.

Obama will still be 60-70 delegates short of a majority among all delegates to the convention — both the pledged and the unpledged superdelegates  — when Oregon votes are fully counted.

The Democratic front-runner claimed Tuesday night at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, that he had captured most of the pledged delegates at stake in the 56 Democratic contests.

“We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people, and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States,” Obama declared at the site of his Jan. 3 caucus triumph.

His decision to hold his primary-night rally in a state the campaign considers important to Democrats in November was a sign that Obama is looking straight ahead to the general election.

In his address, he attempted to reach out to Clinton and urge Democrats to unite against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.

“We’ve had our disagreements during this campaign, but we all admire her courage, and her commitment and her perseverance,” Obama said of Clinton. “And no matter how this primary ends, Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of age. And for that we are grateful to her.”

The campaign claimed the pledged-delegate milestone earlier in an e-mail to supporters, as his aides touted the achievement.

“I don’t think anybody has ever won the majority of pledged delegates and have not been the nominee of the party, so it’s obviously very important, but we are going to fight for every delegate and finish out the process,” Obama strategist David Axelrod told reporters.

But Clinton won the Kentucky primary by a better than 2-to-1 margin. The win comes one week after Clinton trounced Obama by 41 points in West Virginia, exposing the Democratic front-runner’s weaknesses among whites, working-class voters and other groups.

“Tonight we’ve achieved an important victory,” Clinton told an enthusiastic crowd at her victory rally earlier in Louisville, Ky. “It’s not just Kentucky bluegrass that’s music to my ears, it’s the sound of your overwhelming vote of confidence, even in the face of some pretty tough odds.”

With 100 percent of precincts reporting in Kentucky, Clinton won 65-30 percent.

Seventy-one percent of white voters, 78 percent of seniors and 68 percent of voters without college degrees went for Clinton in Kentucky, according to FOX News exit polls.

The exit polls showed that 64 percent of Clinton voters still think she will win the Democratic nomination.

Click here to see photos from the Kentucky and Oregon primaries.

Clinton’s performance Tuesday — and its campaign financing haul for the month of April — gave the campaign the wind it needs to stay in the race.

“I’m more determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot counted,” Clinton said Tuesday, again claiming she has the popular vote lead. She claims that lead by counting the Michigan and Florida primaries, which were discounted because the states held early contests in violation of party rules.

Party officials are scheduled to meet later this month to consider how — or whether — to seat all or part of the states’ delegates, and the Clinton campaign is continuing to fight for those states’ delegates.

“We’re back. We continue to raise money, we continue to win states. This thing goes on. I don’t know why people are saying this is over,” Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told FOX News.

McAuliffe earlier told reporters that campaign finance filings will show April was Clinton’s second-best fundraising month of the race. Her campaign later said she earned $22 million for the month. In April, Obama raised more than $31 million for the primary race.

With her Kentucky victory, Clinton picked up at least 33 delegates to at least 14 for Obama with an additional four yet to be awarded.

But Obama still leads overall and has steadily picked up momentum as he drives toward the 2,026 delegates needed to become the nominee of his party.

As Oregon was tallied, Obama had 1,956 total delegates, putting him within 100 of the 2,026 needed. The former first lady had 1,775.

Obama weeks ago predicted Clinton would win Kentucky. The Clinton campaign similarly indicated that Obama would likely win Oregon, where Obama invested his time and drew a crowd estimated at 75,000 over the weekend

The Beaver State has 52 delegates. It also had the distinction of staging the only contest without a designated polling day. Instead, under a vote-by-mail system, election officials tallied all ballots received by 11 p.m. on primary day.

The only primaries remaining are in Puerto Rico, on June 1, followed two days later by South Dakota and Montana.

Republicans, too, were holding primary contests in Oregon and Kentucky, but these were “beauty contests,” as McCain wrapped up the nomination more than two months ago.

FOX News’ Steve Brown and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hillary Clinton has a loyal base and it came out strong for her in the Kentucky primary, according to early exit polling Tuesday.

Among white women — Clinton’s core — she was winning with 73 percent of the vote. Among white voters with no college education, another key group, she was winning with 74 percent of the vote. Seventy-eight percent of seniors said they were voting for her and among churchgoers, Clinton was leading Sen. Barack Obama with 65 percent of voters. Among lower-income voters, those making less than $50,000 a year, Clinton was winning 66 percent to 31 percent for Obama.

Atypically, Clinton won among younger voters, under 30, 40 percent to 47 percent for Obama.

Clinton has been emphasizing the “experience factor” throughout her campaign. Of the 23 percent who said this quality was most important to them, 92 percent were going for Clinton on Tuesday.

“She has credible arguments to make, and tonight she is going to get further vindication with her arguments,” said FOX News contributor Michael Steele, pointing to her loyal base. “What they’re looking for is there might be a lightning strike leading up to the nomination,” and won’t likely give up on her anytime soon.

Emerging also is the extent that these voters won’t give up: only 50 percent of Democratic voters in the Kentucky contest said they would vote for Obama if he faced presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in the fall, while 32 percent said they would vote for McCain and 15 percent said they would stay home.

As in other primary contests, the economy appears to be the number one issue, with 45 percent saying their family has been affected “a great deal” by the current downturn. Of those voters, 68 percent were choosing Clinton, with 28 percent going for Obama. About 20 percent were saying the Iraq War was the most important issue to them.

But Democrats voting in Tuesday’s contest seem to be pragmatists — 54 percent said Obama will be the ultimate nominee for their party, including 34 percent of Clinton supporters. However, they are not entirely happy about it: only 33 percent of Clinton voters said they’d vote for Obama in the fall.

Did the endorsement of Obama by former presidential candidate John Edwards last week sway anyone’s vote? A split decision, it would seem: 45 percent said the endorsement was important to their vote, 51 percent said no. Of those who said yes, 51 percent voted for Obama on Tuesday.

Obama, despite his disadvantages in the the Kentucky race, is still beating out Clinton in the “trustworthy” category. Here, 47 percent of the voters are saying he is trustworthy, compared to 45 percent for Clinton. As for campaign tactics, 55 percent said Clinton unfairly attacked Obama, while 47 percent said Obama unfairly attacked her. In terms of values, 54 percent said Clinton shared their values, while 47 percent said Obama shared theirs.

On the other hand, 53 percent said Obama shares the values of his controversial pastor Rev. Wright.

Meanwhile, in Oregon, where the the voting is completely by mail, FOX News did a telephone poll of 1,200 Democratic voters over the last several days and found that Obama was leading Clinton 56 percent to 42 percent. Here, he won his core groups — he won college graduates (about 46 percent of the Democratic voters there ) by 64 percent to 35 percent for Clinton.

Among women voters — usually Clinton’s core, Obama was splitting this group down the middle. The same with the seniors, another Clinton stronghold. In Oregon, she was beating him 55 percent to 43 percent.

Obama also was winning among union voters — about 25 percent of the electorate — 60 percent to 37 percent for Clinton. In terms of sharing the voters’ values, 77 percent told FOX News that Obama shares their values, compared to 68 percent for Clinton.

Unlike the scenario in Kentucky, most Democratic voters in Oregon — 57 percent — said they think Obama is more electable against McCain, compared to 32 percent who think Clinton is the better general election candidate. Also in Oregon 82 percent of Democrats said they would vote for Obama over McCain despite their primary preferences, while only 12 percent said they’d vote for McCain.

Race played more of a role in Kentucky — 22 percent said it was important to their vote — while 10 percent of Oregon voters said race played a role.

Click here to see the raw data from the Kentucky exit poll.

Click here to see the raw date from the Oregon primary day poll.

BARACK OBAMA: How’s it going, Iowa? (APPLAUSE)

It is good to be back in Iowa.

(APPLAUSE)

I love you back, Iowa.

(APPLAUSE)

First of all, let me say thank you to Candy Smeeter (ph) for the wonderful introduction and the unbelievable work that she did on behalf of our campaign, and still does.

There are too many good friends and people who work tirelessly on my behalf to thank. You know who you are individually.

I just want to say, first of all, thank you, to all of you, for the great work that you did in helping to kick off this campaign.

And I do want to take a point of personal privilege and just say that I sure have a nice-looking wife and kids.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, there is a spirit that brought us here tonight, a spirit of change, and hope, and possibility. And there are few people in this country who embody that spirit more than our friend and our champion, Senator Edward Kennedy.

(APPLAUSE)

He has spent his life in service to this country, not for the sake of glory or recognition, but because he cares, deeply in his gut, about the causes of justice, and equality, and opportunity.

So many of us here have benefited in some way or another because of the battles he’s waged and some of us are here because of them. And we know he’s not well right now, but we also know that he’s a fighter.

And as he takes on this fight, let us lift his spirits tonight by letting Ted Kennedy know that we are thinking of him, that we are praying for him, that we are standing with him and Vicky, and that we will be fighting with him every step of the way.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, 15 months ago, in the depths of winter, it was in this great state where we took the first steps of an unlikely journey to change America.

The skeptics predicted we wouldn’t get very far. The cynics dismissed us as a lot of hype and a little too much hope. And by the fall, the pundits in Washington had all but counted us out.

But the people of Iowa had a different idea.

(APPLAUSE)

From the very beginning, you knew that this journey wasn’t about me or any of the other candidates in this race. It was about whether this country, at this defining moment, will continue down the same road that has failed us for so long or whether we will seize this opportunity to take a different path, to forge a different future for this country that we love.

That’s the question that sent thousands upon thousands of you to high school gyms and VFW halls, to backyards and front porches, to steak fries and J.J. dinners, where you spoke about what the future would look like.

You spoke of an America where working families don’t have to file for bankruptcy just because a child gets sick, where they don’t lose their home because some predatory lender tricks them out of it, where they don’t have to sit on the sidelines of the global economy because they couldn’t afford the cost of a college education.

You spoke of an America where our parents and our grandparents don’t spend their retirement in poverty because some CEO dumped their pension, an America where we don’t just value wealth, but we value work and the workers who create it, as well.

(APPLAUSE)

You spoke of an America where we don’t send our sons and daughters on tour after tour of duty to a war that has cost us thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, but has not made us safer.

(APPLAUSE)

You spoke of an America where we matched the might of our military with the strength of our diplomacy and the power of our ideals, a nation that is still the beacon of all that is good and all that is possible for humankind.

You spoke of a future where the politics we have in Washington finally reflects the values we hold as Americans, the values you live by here in Iowa: common sense and honesty, generosity and compassion, decency and responsibility.

These values don’t belong to one class or one region or even one party. They are the values that bind us together as one country.

That is the country…

(APPLAUSE)

That’s the country I saw in the faces of crowds that would stretch far into the horizon of our heartland, faces of every color, of every age, faces I see here tonight.

(APPLAUSE)

You’re Democrats who are tired of being divided, but you’re also Republicans who no longer recognize the party that runs Washington, and independents who are hungry for change.

(APPLAUSE)

You’re the young people who’ve been inspired for the very first time…

(APPLAUSE)

… and those not-so-young folks who’ve been inspired for the first time in a long time.

(APPLAUSE)

You’re veterans and churchgoers, sportsman and students, farmers and factory workers, teachers and business owners, who have varied backgrounds and different traditions, but the same simple dreams for your children’s future.

Many of you have been disappointed by politics and politicians more times than you can count. You’ve seen promises broken, good ideas drowned in the sea of influence and point-scoring and petty bickering that’s consumed Washington.

And you’ve been told over and over and over again to be cynical, and doubtful, and even fearful about the possibility that things can ever be different, can ever be better.

And yet, in spite of all the doubt and disappointment, or perhaps because of it, you came out on a cold winter’s night in January, in numbers that this country has never seen, and you stood for change.

(APPLAUSE)

You stood for change. And because you did, a few more stood up, and then a few thousand stood up, and then a few million stood up.

(APPLAUSE)

And tonight, Iowa, in the fullness of spring, with the help of those who stood up from Portland to Louisville, we have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people…

(APPLAUSE)

… and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama!

OBAMA: You know, the road here has been long. There have been some bumps along the way. I’ve made some mistakes.

But also it’s partly because we’ve traveled this road with one of the most formidable candidates to ever run for this office.

You know, in her 35 years of public service, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has never given up on her fight for the American people. And tonight I congratulate her on her victory in Kentucky.

You know, we’ve had our disagreements during this campaign, but we all admire her courage, and her commitment, and her perseverance. And no matter how this primary ends, Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of age, and for that we are grateful to her.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, some may see the millions upon millions of votes cast for each of us as evidence that our party is divided. But I see it as proof that we have never been more energized and united in our desire to take this country in a new direction.

(APPLAUSE)

More than anything, we need this unity and this energy in the months to come, because, while our primary has been long and hard- fought, the hardest and most important part of our journey still lies ahead.

We face an opponent, John McCain, who arrived in Washington nearly three decades ago as a Vietnam War hero and earned an admirable reputation for straight talk and occasional independence from his party.

But this year’s Republican primary was a contest to see which candidate could out-Bush the other, and that’s a contest that John McCain won.

The Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans that once bothered John McCain’s conscience are now his only economic policy.

The Bush health care plan that only helps those who are already healthy and wealthy is now John McCain’s answer to the 47 million Americans without insurance and the millions more who can’t pay their medical bills.

The Bush Iraq policy that asks everything from our troops and nothing of Iraqi politicians is John McCain’s policy, too. And so is the fear of tough and aggressive diplomacy that has left this country more isolated and less secure than at any time in recent history.

(APPLAUSE)

The lobbyists who ruled George Bush’s Washington are now running John McCain’s campaign. And they actually had the nerve the other day to say that the American people won’t care about this.

Talk about out of touch. I think the American people care plenty about that.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, I will leave it up to Senator McCain to explain to the American people whether his policies and positions represent long-held convictions or Washington calculations, but the one thing they don’t represent is change.

Change is a tax code that rewards work instead of wealth, by cutting taxes for middle-class families, and senior citizens, and struggling homeowners, a tax code that rewards businesses that create good jobs here in America, instead of the corporations that ship them overseas. That’s what change is.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!

OBAMA: Change is a health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it, that brings down premiums for every family who needs it, that stops insurance companies from discriminating and denying coverage to those who need it most. That’s what change is.

(APPLAUSE)

Change is an energy policy that doesn’t rely on buddying up to the Saudi royal family and then begging them for oil, an energy policy…

(APPLAUSE)

Change is an energy policy that puts a price on pollution and makes the oil companies invest their record profits in clean, renewable sources of energy that will create millions of new jobs and leave our children a safer planet. That’s what change is, Iowa.

(APPLAUSE)

Change is giving every child a world-class education by recruiting an army of new teachers with better pay and more support, by promising four years of tuition to any American willing to serve their community and their country, by realizing that the best education starts with parents who turn off the TV, and take away the video games, and read to their children once in a while. That’s what change is.

(APPLAUSE)

Change is ending a war that we never should have started.

(APPLAUSE)

Change is finishing a war against Al Qaida in Afghanistan that we never should have ignored.

(APPLAUSE)

Change is facing the threats of the 21st century, not with bluster or fear-mongering or tough talk or suspending due process, but with tough diplomacy and strong alliances and confidence in the ideals that have made this nation the last best hope on Earth.

That is the legacy of Roosevelt and Truman and Kennedy. That, Iowa, is what change is. That is the choice in this election.

(APPLAUSE)

The same question that first led us to Iowa 15 months ago is the one that’s brought us back here tonight. It’s the one we will debate from Washington to Florida, from New Hampshire to New Mexico, the question of whether this country, at this moment, will keep doing what we’ve been doing for four more years or whether we will take that different path.

It’s more of the same versus change. It’s the past versus the future. It has been asked and answered by generations before us. And now it is our turn to choose.

We will face our share of difficult and uncertain days in the journey ahead. The other side knows they have embraced yesterday’s policies, so they will also embrace yesterday’s tactics to try and change the subject.

They’ll play on our fears and our doubts. They’ll try to sow discord and division to distract us from what matters to you and your future.

Well, they can take the low road if they want, but it will not lead this country to a better place. It will not work in this election. It won’t work because you will not let it work, not this time, not this year.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!

OBAMA: My faith in the decency and honesty and generosity of the American people is not based on false hope or blind optimism, but on what I’ve lived and what I’ve seen in this very state.

For in the darkest days of this campaign, when we were dismissed by all the polls and all the pundits, I would come to Iowa and see that there was something happening here that the world did not yet understand.

(APPLAUSE)

It’s what led high school and college students to give up their vacations to stuff envelopes and knock on doors.

(APPLAUSE)

It’s why grandparents have spent all their afternoons making phone calls to perfect strangers. It’s what led men and women who can barely pay their bills to dig into their savings and write $5 checks and $10 checks and why young people from all over this country have left their friends and their families for a job that offers little pay and less sleep.

Iowa, change is coming to America.

(APPLAUSE)

Change is coming.

It’s the spirit that sent the first patriots to Lexington and Concord and led the defenders of freedom to light the way north on an Underground Railroad.

It’s what sent my grandfather’s generation to beachheads in Normandy, and women to Seneca Falls, and workers to picket lines and factory fences.

It’s what led all those young men and women who saw beatings and billy-clubs on their television screens to leave the safety of their homes and get on buses and march through the streets of Selma and Montgomery, black and white, rich and poor.

(APPLAUSE)

Change is coming to America, Iowa.

(APPLAUSE)

It’s what I saw all those years ago on the streets of Chicago when I worked as an organizer, that in the face of joblessness and hopelessness and despair, a better day is still possible, if there are people who are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it.

That’s what I’ve seen here in Iowa. That’s what is happening in America.

Our journey may be long. Our work will be great. But we know in our hearts we are ready for change. We are ready to come together. And in this election, we are ready to believe again.

Thank you, Iowa. And God bless you. God bless America. Thank you.

HILLARY CLINTON: Thank you, Kentucky. Thank you very, very much.

You know, I am so grateful for this victory, and I am so appreciative, because tonight I’m thinking about why we’re all here. And it’s not just to win a primary or even just to win an election.

What propels us is the struggle to realize America’s promise: a nation where every child can achieve his or her God-given potential, where every man and woman has a fair chance, where we fulfill…

(APPLAUSE)

… where we fulfill the ideals our founders pledged their lives to defend and our nation was born to uphold.

I want to say a special word this evening about someone who has spent his whole life dedicated to realizing the promise of America.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator Ted Kennedy…

(APPLAUSE)

… is one of the greatest progressive leaders in our party’s history and one of the most effective senators in our country’s history. He’s my friend, and he’s my inspiration. More than that, he is a hero to millions of Americans whose lives he has fought to better.

I’m proud to have stood side-by-side with Ted Kennedy to increase the minimum wage, to extend health insurance to millions of children, to help stop insurance companies from discriminating against the sick.

But the privileges that I have had and so many others have had, because of the battles we have fought side-by-side with him are just a mere handful of what he has done during his entire public service, five extraordinary decades devoted to America.

And as a lifelong champion for social justice and equality, his work has made the path easier for me, for Senator Obama, and for countless others. He’s been with us for our fights, and we’re with him now in his.

(APPLAUSE)

And I know he’s going to fight with all of his legendary might, supported by his wonderful wife, Vicky, and his entire family against this latest challenge. And we wish him well and send our thoughts and prayers to him.

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Tonight, we’ve achieved an important victory.

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It’s not just Kentucky bluegrass that’s music to my ears. It’s the sound of your overwhelming vote of confidence, even in the face of some pretty tough odds.

Some have said your votes didn’t matter, that this campaign was over, that allowing everyone to vote and every vote to count would somehow be a mistake. But that didn’t stop you. You’ve never given up on me, because you know I’ll never give up on you.

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This is one of the closest races for a party’s nomination in modern history. We’re winning the popular vote, and I’m more determined…

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… more determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot counted.

I commend Senator Obama and his supporters. And while we continue to go toe-to-toe for this nomination, we do see eye-to-eye when it comes to uniting our party to elect a Democratic president in the fall.

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But I need your help. Your support has made the difference between victory and defeat. Though we have been outspent massively, your support has helped us make our case on the air and on the ground, and your help will keep us going.

We’ve made it this far together, so please go to HillaryClinton.com…

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… and together we will make history. And I can’t do it without you.

Now, you know that the stakes are high. After all this country has been through the past seven years, we have to get this right. We have to select a nominee who is best positioned to win in November.

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AUDIENCE: Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!

CLINTON: And someone who is best prepared to address the enormous challenges facing our country in these difficult times. That’s what this election is all about.

Now, I’m told that more people have voted for me than for anyone who’s ever run for the Democratic nomination.

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That’s more than 17 million votes. Now, why? Why do millions keep turning out to vote in the face of naysayers and skeptics? Because you know that our political process is more than candidates running or the pundits chattering or the ads blaring.

It’s about the path we choose as a nation and whether or not we will solve our toughest problems, whether or not we will have a president who will rebuild the economy, end the war in Iraq, restore our leadership in the world, and stand up for you every single day.

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And, you know, the people I meet along the campaign trail don’t always make the headlines: the nurses and teachers, the truckers and soldiers, the waitresses and firefighters, the police officers and coal miners, the college students and line workers, the men and women who get up every single day, work hard to make a difference for their families, the people struggling to make ends meet, to find a good job, to pay the bills, to have a shot at the American dream.

For too long, too many Americans have felt invisible in their own country. Well, you’ve never been invisible to me. I’ve been fighting for you my entire life.

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And I want you to remember we are in this race because we believe that every single American deserves quality, affordable health care, no exceptions, no one left out.

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We are in this race because we believe everyone deserves a shot at the American dream, the opportunity to work hard at a good job to get ahead, to save for college, for a home, for retirement, to fill the gas tank, and buy the groceries with a little left at the end of each month to build a better life for you and your children.

We are in this race because we believe this new century poses new challenges to meet and new opportunities to seize, if we only had a president ready, willing, and able to lead…

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… and turn the climate crisis into an energy revolution and create millions of new jobs, to turn the risks of the new global economy into the rewards of new prosperity shared by all of our people.

We are in this race because we believe it will take a commander- in-chief with the strength and knowledge to end the war in Iraq, safely and quickly, and a president with experience, representing the people of the United States in more than 80 countries, to restore our leadership and moral authority in the world.

And, yes, we are in this race because we believe America is worth fighting for. This…

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This continues to be a tough fight, and I have fought it the only way I know how: with determination, by never giving up and never giving in.

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I have done it — I have done it not because I’ve wanted to demonstrate my toughness, but because I believe passionately that, for the sake of our country, the Democrats must take back the White House and end Republican rule.

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This country needs our combination of strength and compassion to help people struggling with their bills, living the hard reality of everyday life, in need of our leadership on issues from health care to energy to Social Security.

That’s why I’m still running, and that’s why you’re still voting.

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And I’m going on now to campaign in Montana, South Dakota, and Puerto Rico.

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And I’m going to keep standing up for the voters of Florida and Michigan.

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Democrats in those two states cast 2.3 million votes, and they deserve to have those votes counted.

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And that’s why I’m going to keep making our case until we have a nominee, whoever she may be.

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Now, it’s especially sweet tonight because Kentucky has a knack for picking presidents.

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This state delivered two terms to a president named Clinton.

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And it’s often been said, as Kentucky goes, so goes the nation.

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Neither Senator Obama nor I has won the 2,210 delegates required to secure the nomination. And because this race is so close, still separated by less than 200 delegates out of more than 4,400, neither Senator Obama nor I will have reached that magic number when the voting ends on June the 3rd.

And so…

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… our party will have a tough choice to make. Who’s ready to lead our party at the top of our ticket?

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Who is ready to defeat Senator McCain in the swing states and among swing voters?

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Who’s ready to rebuild the economy and the war in Iraq and protect our national security as commander-in-chief? Who is ready on day one to lead?

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You know, there are so many Kentuckians that I want to thank. I am so honored by your support and hospitality to me, to Bill, and to Chelsea.

And I want to thank Jerry and Charlotte Lundergan and my entire Kentucky steering committee, including former Governors Wendell Ford, Julian Carroll, John Y. Brown, Martha Layne Collins, and Paul Patton.

I want to thank Speaker Jody Richards and his wife, Neva, former Attorney General Greg Stumbo, Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, and Tina Ward-Pugh, and…

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… Terry McBrayer, Jo Etta Wickliffe, and Moretta Bosley.

And I want to thank my friends in labor for standing by us every step of the way.

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I am grateful to the Kentucky Veterans for Hillary and honored by your support and your service.

I want to thank my chairman, Terry McAuliffe, and my family.

I am so grateful to the outstanding staff, volunteers and supporters in Kentucky and in Oregon and across America who have worked so hard.

Now, I have one more request to all of my supporters tonight. To the people I’ve met along the campaign trail, to everyone who has knocked on doors, and volunteered, and put up signs, and donated to this campaign: Keep working, keep fighting, keep standing up for what you believe is right…

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… because that is exactly what I’m going to do. People ask me all the time, “How do you keep going?” Well, it is you who keep me going.

And tonight I’m thinking about all of the women I’ve met who were born before women could vote. Just this week, I met 89-year-old Emma Hollis (ph), an African-American woman. She has seen so many barriers crumble and fall in her lifetime, but she’s not finished yet.

She’s been volunteering out of our campaign office in Covington to help our campaign break the highest and hardest glass ceiling in the land.

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I’m thinking about Andrea Spiegel (ph), a strong and composed young woman, 20 years old, who drove across Kentucky to meet me. Her husband, Justin, is deployed in Afghanistan. And she told me how important it is that we have a president who will always stand up for our veterans. And I’m honored by her support and by her family’s service and sacrifice.

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And I’m thinking, again, about Dalton Hatfield, the 11-year-old from Kentucky who sold his bike and his video games to raise money to support my campaign.

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And then he asked others to give, too, and he was able to really give me a boost. And this week, I finally had the chance to meet him in Crestenberg (ph) and to say…

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… Dalton, thank you so much. The $422 you raised helped carry the day in Kentucky.

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That’s why I’m in this race: to fight for your future. And that’s why, whatever happens, I’ll work as hard as I can to elect a Democratic president this fall.

You know, the state motto of Kentucky is, “United we stand, divided we fall,” words that have a special place in our history. They inspire American revolutionaries to unite the colonies, to defy an empire, and create a new nation, to invent a new form of government, of the people, by the people, and for the people, and they bound our nation together in service and sacrifice, even in our darkest hours.

We will come together as a party, united by common values and common cause, united in service of the hopes and dreams that know no boundaries of race or creed, gender or geography. And when we do, there will be no stopping us.

We won’t just unite our party. We will unite our country and make sure America’s best years are still ahead of us.

Thank you. And God bless you, and God bless America.