Why did Barack Obama win North Dakota and why did Hillary win South Dakota in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries? What is so different about those two states that caused such different results? I know North Dakota was a caucus and South Dakota was a primary. I know that Hillary performed better in the primaries and Obama won almost every caucus (save for Nevada). Any other explanations?
Hillary basically ignored caucuses, which is why she lost all of them except Nevada. In addition, her campaign saw South Dakota as an absolute must-win to keep Obama from getting a majority of delegates and pushed hard on it near the end. She won the state, but of course that wasn't enough.
