DES MOINES — Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore came away the clear winners in Iowa’s Monday night caucus.

On the GOP side, with 96 percent of precincts accounted for, Bush had 41 percent of the support. Following Bush was publisher Steve Forbes, who held 30 percent of the votes.

Talk show host Alan Keyes came away with third place, holding 14 percent of the vote. Conservative commentator Gary Bauer, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch all garnered less than 10 percent of voter support.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Gore secured a solid victory in the Democratic caucus by taking 63 percent of the vote. Gore’s competitor former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley had 35 percent of the support, and 2 percent of voters remained uncommitted.

Flashing a thumb’s up, Vice President Al Gore savored his Iowa caucus victory Monday night and sounded a battle cry to Bill Bradley: “We’ve just begun to fight.”

“Tipper and I can’t wait to get to New Hampshire,” Gore said in a telephone call to the state’s governor, Jeanne Shaheen, and supporters watching Iowa returns.

Bradley congratulated Gore for a strong showing but professed to be undaunted.

“Tonight, I have a little more humility, but no less confidence that I can win and do the job,” he told supporters. As for Gore, “I will be seeing a lot of him in the coming weeks.”

In the GOP race, second-place finisher Forbes, who fared much better than recent polls had predicted, heard chants of “We believe in Steve” from a group of about 500 supporters who gathered at the Marriott Hotel in West Des Moines to congratulate him on an impressive showing.

“Your faith has been vindicated tonight,” Forbes told his supporters. “This is not a good night for the power brokers of Washington D.C. Thanks to you, they have finally met their match.”

Forbes said his campaign will only become stronger before next week’s New Hampshire primary.

“You have earned the right to celebrate, but rest up, because our journey has just begun,” he said.

The race for third place was predicted to be fairly close, but the Keyes campaign gained momentum in the remaining few days before Monday night’s showdown.

A confident Keyes did better than expected. Monday night, he offered no pre-caucus predictions but maintained a positive attitude about his performance.

Keyes said he was not worried about the final outcome.

“I feel quite at peace. I think we did the best we could,” he said. “Our philosophy is ‘We do our best, God does the rest.'”

Nearly 1,000 Bush fans attended a post-caucus celebration at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Des Moines.

Bush greeted the crowd by saying, “Thank you, Iowa.”

The governor said the showing of support from Iowa voters exceeded his expectations.

“Tonight also marks the beginning of the end of the Clinton era,” he said. “I will never forget that it started right here [in Iowa.]”

The candidates won’t have much time to recover from Monday night’s first-in-the-nation caucus before they move on to New Hampshire, which is the next test of support. It will be held Feb. 1.

During his celebration, Bush offered a message to those voters. “To the people of New Hampshire — I’m on my way,” he said.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.