WASHINGTON (AP) – Sen. John McCain won a string of primaries along the East Coast and in Illinois Tuesday night, reaching for command of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama swapped victories as they waged a nationwide struggle for delegates in the grueling Democratic campaign.

McCain triumphed in New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware, winning all 97 delegates at stake in the three states combined, as well as placing Illinois in his column.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won Republican races in Alabama, his home state of Arkansas and the West Virginia convention.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, won a home state victory.

Obama, hoping to become the first black president, won in Georgia and his home state of Illinois. Clinton, seeking to become the first female president, countered in Oklahoma, Tennessee and then in Arkansas, where she was first lady for more than a decade.

After an early series of low-delegate, single-state contests, Super Tuesday was anything but small – its primaries and caucuses were spread across nearly half the country in the most wide-open presidential campaign in memory.

The result was a double-barreled set of races, Obama and Clinton fighting for delegates as well as bragging rights in individual states, Republicans McCain, Romney and Huckabee doing likewise.

Polling place interviews with voters across 16 states suggested subtle shifts in the political landscape.

Overall, Clinton was winning only a slight edge among women and white voters, both groups that she had won handily in earlier contests, according to preliminary results from interviews with voters in 16 states leaving polling places. Obama was collecting the overwhelming majority of votes cast by blacks.

Clinton was gaining the votes of roughly six in 10 Hispanics, and hoped the edge would serve her well as the race turned west to Arizona, New Mexico and California, the biggest prize with 370 delegates.

McCain was running even with Romney among voters calling themselves Republicans, a group he has not won in any of the earlier primaries or caucuses. As usual, he was running strongly among independents. Romney was getting the votes of about four in 10 people who described themselves as conservative. McCain was wining about one-third of that group, and Huckabee about one in five.