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Hispanics as a group favored former candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., over Obama, D-Ill., by significant margins in the Democratic presidential primaries and political observers wondered if Obama would inherit their whole-hearted support. Obama's GOP rival, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has also made strong pitches to Hispanic voters.

But a poll released by the Gallup Organization of Princeton, N.J., indicated Obama has a strong lead over McCain among Hispanics at 59 percent to 29 percent. The poll found little variation of Obama's lead when poll respondents were broken down by age, gender or marital status. Only among the 36 percent of Hispanics who identified themselves as conservatives was there good news for McCain: There he was even with Obama, Gallup said.

Obama's solid showing among Hispanics could be crucial in Western states such as New Mexico and Colorado as well as in Florida, which could become a key election swing state, pollsters said.

Some 4,604 adult Hispanic registered voters were polled March 7-June 30 in the survey, which had a 2 percentage-point error margin.

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