WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama is now leading rival Hillary Clinton by double digits, a new poll found.

Obama leads Clinton 49% to 37% in the daily presidential tracking poll by Rasmussen Reports. The poll of likely Democratic primary voters was published Thursday.

Moreover, the poll found, Obama is now leading Clinton among women voters by five percentage points. Clinton retains her lead among white women but her advantage is down to three percentage points in that demographic, the poll found.

Clinton's campaign is reeling from a string of losses to Obama in Democratic contests but is quick to point out that the New York senator is leading her rival in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
After a delay of nine days, Clinton was declared the winner of the New Mexico Democratic caucuses on Thursday.

The next big contests for the Democrats are in delegate-rich Ohio and Texas. Those are held on March 4 with 389 delegates and super-delegates at stake. If Obama can pull off an upset in Texas, it could tilt the nomination heavily in his favor. IVR Polls determined that Obama was 10 points behind Clinton as of Jan. 31, but he has steadily closed the gap in recent weeks.

Obama is leading Clinton by a razor-thin margin in the delegate count: 55 delegates, according to a tally by The Wall Street Journal. Obama currently has 1,275 delegates to Clinton's 1,220. The Democratic candidate will need 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination.