As Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) earned a decisive victory in the North Carolina primary Tuesday night and fought to a virtual tie in Indiana with his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), his supporters on campus were happy with the results and predicted that the Democratic Party would coalesce behind whomever the eventual nominee is.

Obama’s convincing win in North Carolina, where he beat Clinton by 14 percentage points, seemed to blunt the momentum she had built since her win in the Pennsylvania primary two weeks ago. In doing so, Obama’s supporters on campus indicated, the Illinois senator seemed to have weathered the storm surrounding the incendiary comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor.

Obama’s big win in North Carolina combined with a split decision in Indiana means that he will earn a larger share of the 200-plus delegates at stake in the two states last night and increase his already substantial lead over Clinton in that column.

“Barack exceeded expectations going into [Tuesday] in both states,” said Jonathan Jourdane ‘08, the campus coordinator for Students for Barack Obama, on Tuesday evening. “He was projected in the latest polls to lose Indiana by five or six percent and he’s either going to win or it’s going to be really close. For North Carolina, he also exceeded expectations there.”

At press time, Clinton held a slim 23,000-vote lead in Indiana, which she seemed to have won by a mere two percentage points. Results from the Hoosier State were not known until after 10 p.m. Pacific Time because Lake County, a virtual suburb of Chicago, counted its votes very slowly.

“I’m thrilled that Senator Clinton was victorious this evening,” said Clinton supporter Patrick Cordova ‘09. “I hope that her wins will continue.”

Sarah Woodward ‘09 backed Clinton early in the primary season, but she realized that the Illinois senator had a power to reach out to people who were not typically interested in politics.

“As the campaign has gone further, I’ve started to be excited for Obama’s new perspective,” she said. “I feel like he’s not as tainted by the system, which I have kind of lost faith in.”

Jourdane said that there are a number of committed Stanford students who were in Indiana campaigning for the Illinois Senator, who has consistently outperformed his rival among college students.

“Because Indiana was so close we have a bunch of Stanford students there working,” he said. “Some are there full time, some just for the week.”

He said that Charlie Davis ‘08 graduated early to become a full-time field organizer for Obama in Indianapolis and that there will be Stanford students traveling to many of the upcoming primary states, including nearby Oregon, which votes on May 20. Jourdane added that there are Stanford students working five days per week in the Palo Alto field office making calls to the voters in states that have yet to cast their ballots.

Support for Obama on campus transcends the undergraduate population. Dean of Freshmen and Transfer Students Julie Lythcott-Haims ‘89 and Law School student Matt Haney J.D. ‘10 were recently picked to represent California’s 14th district, which includes Stanford, as Obama delegates at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in August in Denver.

While on-campus Obama supporters are celebrating Tuesday’s victory, some backing Clinton hope the race will continue. Cordova disagreed with people pressing her to drop out of the race.

“I think that they’re discounting a significant amount of Americans who clearly support her campaign,” he said. “To suggest she should just drop out, we’re suggesting their voice is not valid.”

Cordova also pointed out one bonus of an extended primary season — it has brought Democrats to the polls in unprecedented numbers.

“There have been all these special elections,” he said, “and because of that, there’s been higher Democratic turnout so that we’ve been able to win some of these seats.”

Despite the furor surrounding Obama in recent weeks as speculation about his relationship with Rev. Wright seemed to hurt him, Jourdane was optimistic that the Democratic Party would unite around him should he win the nomination.

“The Democratic Party will unite by November to win the general election, regardless of who the nominee is,” Jourdane said. “And we can only hope that Obama and Hillary supporters will come together to win in November and I think we will.”

Recent polls have indicated that shrinking numbers of both candidates’ supporters would be willing to back the other if their candidate did not win the nomination — a sign of the increasingly divisive turn the campaign has taken in recent weeks. A CNN poll from Tuesday, for example, revealed that only 48 percent of Clinton supporters said they would back Obama if he were the nominee.

But Jourdane predicted that these divisions would disappear as the general election approaches.

“I think that’ll definitely change,” he said. “The election in November is too important and people are just so into every state’s primary and every state’s caucus that I’m certain that by November that the Democratic Party will unify around the nominee and win.”

Nonetheless, Jourdane said, the protracted fight for the nomination has been nothing if not thrilling.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s an emotional roller coaster.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.