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Clinton boosted her campaign for the nomination when she won the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
While Obama has sought to distance himself from controversial remarks made by his former pastor, support for Clinton in North Carolina has grown, eroding Obama’s lead in that state.
Clinton is also leading Obama 49 per cent to 43 per cent in Indiana, according to a Suffolk poll with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
Clinton has argued that she is the Democrats’ best hope winning the White House, in part because she is more popular with the party’s working-class base.
The candidates clashed on Monday over Clinton’s plan to suspend the federal vehicle fuel tax, with Obama saying that his rival’s proposal to suspend the levy over a holiday period was a “stunt”.
But in a campaign advertisement aired on Monday, Obama said that Clinton was offering “more of the same old negative politics”.
Clinton’s advertisement claimed she is “the candidate who is going to fight for working people”.
A combined 187 delegates are offered in the two primaries, but due to Democratic party rules the delegates are shared out according to the proportion of the vote received by each nominee.
Each nominee requires 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination to run for the US presidency.
With neither candidate likely to reach 2,025 delegates by the final primary vote in June, the contest is likely to be decided by superdelegates – high-ranking Democrats that can vote for their preferred nominee regardless of primary and caucus results.
From contests held so far, Obama currently holds 1,746 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 1,611, according to MSNBC figures, including superdelegates who have already pledged their allegiance to the candidate of their choice.
The 16-month battle between Clinton and Obama has raised concerns in the Democratic party that it will appear disunited to voters ahead of the November general elections.

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Early voting for the March 4 primaries will begin today at 12 locations across the county, and leaders for both major parties expect a larger-than-normal turnout.
With hype mounting around the presidential nominations, the primaries are expected to bring large crowds to the voting booths, especially on the Democratic side, officials said.
Many expect the tight race between Democratic candidates Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York to fuel high voter turnout for the party’s primary, even in the Republican- ruled county.
And with the Republican nomination all but decided, voter turnout isn’t expected to eclipse record highs that the party was expecting months ago, said Dianne Edmondson, the Denton County Republi­can Party chairwoman.
“It will draw the numbers down a little,” Edmondson said.
“But it’s up to the [local] candidates to get their people out.”
While the Republican presidential race lacks some luster, the local Republican ballot is highlighted with six contested races, including four winner-takes-all races, where the winners will have no opponent in November.
“The primary is very important, because in some of these races there isn’t going to be a general election contest,” Edmondson said.
In local races, no Democrats face opposition in the primary.
Neil Durrance, the Denton County Democratic Party chairman, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Tempted by Texas’ open primaries, some Republicans have contemplated voting in the Democratic primary to help influence the presidential vote, Edmondson said. However, she has discouraged voters from doing that because of the races on the Republican ballot.
“There are still some important races to vote on,” she said.
 DAN X. McGRAW can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is dmcgraw@dentonrc.com .
Today marks the beginning of early voting for the March 4 primary. Here is a list of candidates in the contested races, and the proposed referendums. (I) denotes the incumbent.
State senator, District 63
 Craig Estes (I)
393 District Court judge
 Lee Ann Breading
County commissioner Precinct 1
 Cynthia White (I)
Constable Precinct 2
 Michael Truitt (I)
Constable Precinct 4
 John Hatzenbuhler (I)
Constable Precinct 5
 Ken Jannereth (I)
Referendum 1: Federal, state and local officials should be required to enforce U.S. immigration laws in order to secure our borders.
Referendum 2: The Texas Legislature should make it a priority to protect the integrity of our election process by enacting legislation that requires voters to provide valid photo identification in order to cast a ballot in any and all elections conducted in the state of Texas.
Referendum 3: Every governmental body in Texas should be required to limit any annual increase in its budget and spending to the combined increase of population and inflation unless it first gets voter approval to exceed the allowed annual growth or in the case of an official state of emergency.

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