WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton got a badly needed piece of good news Thursday with word she had won last week's New Mexico Democratic presidential caucus over her surging rival Barack Obama.

Clinton received 73,105 votes while Obama had 71,396 votes in the February 5 caucus that drew record turnout, state Democratic official Brian Colon told a televised news conference from New Mexico.

It was a welcome result for the former first lady who had lost eight straight nominating contests to her Senate colleague Obama since splitting the "Super Tuesday" slate of races on February 5.

With New Mexico, Clinton now has won party contests in 12 states compared to 22 for Obama, who has pulled ahead in the all-important tally of delegates to the Democratic nominating convention in August.

Clinton has been struggling to blunt Obama's momentum and hang on until the race moves to the delegate-rich states of Ohio and Texas on March 4 and Pennsylvania on April 22.

A total of 492 delegates, nearly a quarter of the 2,025 needed for the nomination, will be at stake in primaries in the three states, where Clinton feels on friendlier ground.

A Quinnipiac University poll published Thursday gave Clinton a 55-34 percent lead over Obama in Ohio and a 52-36 percent edge in Pennsylvania. There have been no recent polls reported on the Texas race.

Clinton narrowly trails Obama in the delegate count 1,237 to 1,289, according to the independent website RealClearPolitics.

She embraced the belated results from New Mexico although her campaign said she had secured only 14 of the state's 26 delegates.

"I am so proud to have earned the support of New Mexicans from across the state," Clinton said in a statement.

"As president, I will continue to stand up for New Mexico and will hit the ground running on day one to bring about real change."