COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Barack Obama’s message of change and hope resonated with Ohio voters looking to take the country in a new direction, helping him win the key battleground state.

Swing groups that propelled President Bush into the White House four years ago flipped to the other side this year, according to exit polls for The Associated Press and television networks

Independents, moderates and women in Ohio all threw their support behind Obama. The Democrat also won across all age groups except those 65 and older.

Ohio’s independents, who have voted for the winner in the past four elections, gave a slight edge to Obama.

He won by a wide margin among all women voters who four years ago split evenly between the two parties. White women were evenly split between the two candidates.

He even had an edge among men, a group that played a big part in Bush’s 2004 victory in Ohio.

Nearly all black voters backed Obama while white voters slightly favored John McCain.

Only a quarter of all voters said race played a part in their decision. Among those who did, they divided about evenly between the two candidates.

Less than one in 10 said race was the most important factor, and most of them voted for Obama, negating worries among his supporters that a significant number of whites would not vote for a black candidate.

Labor union members and their families strongly backed the Democrat — just like they did four years ago — despite worries that white union members would cast their ballots based on race.

More than anything, voters wanted a candidate who could bring change.

A third of the voters cited change as the quality that mattered most, and Obama won among nearly every one of those voters.

McCain scored well among those who wanted an experienced candidate who shared the values. Four years ago, Ohio was a center of the values voter movement and that turnout was credited with helping put Bush over the top.

Obama won the state despite almost half the voters saying he didn’t have enough experience. Four in 10 thought he was too liberal.

The economy was far and away the top issue for voters, Republicans and Democrats alike.

Overall, about nine out of 10 say they’re worried about the direction of the economy in the next year. And nearly everyone voting Tuesday thinks the nation’s economy is in bad shape.

Six in 10 voters picked the economy as the most important issue facing the nation. None of the four other issues listed — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was picked by more than one in 10 people.

Ohio has lost almost 250,000 factory jobs since 2000. Unemployment is well above the national average, and two of Ohio’s biggest cities — Cleveland and Cincinnati — were among the top 10 impoverished big cities in America last year.

“This country is losing jobs. The market is crashing and I don’t think we have seen the worst of it,” said Casmira Dorenkott, 76, of North Olmsted, who voted for Obama.

Obama carried the northern half of the state where industrial cities including Toledo, Cleveland and Youngstown have been hit hard by job losses. He also managed to split the vote in reliably Republican southwest Ohio.

Most people had their minds made up even before the economy spiraled out of control or Joe the Plumber became a household name. Six in 10 said they decided before September and McCain and Obama split the vote between that group.

Obama gained ground when the financial crisis grew in September.

Obama’s team targeted college campuses for young voters, and there were plenty who turned out. One in 10 were age 18-24, and they threw their support behind the Democrat. Less than one in 10 were first-time voters.

The state’s oldest voters, those most worried about health care and their retirement savings, went with McCain.

Mary Arnold, 24, a junior at Cleveland State University, voted for McCain despite misgivings about his position on the Iraq war. Still, she blames President Bush for the war and wants McCain to “straighten out what Bush has done.”

About half of the state’s voters strongly disapproved of the way President Bush has handled the job. And just under half believed that McCain would be an extension of Bush in the White House and continue on with his policies — nearly all of those voters supported Obama.

The survey of 3,047 Ohio voters was conducted for AP by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. Most were interviewed in a random sample of 50 precincts statewide Tuesday; 488 who voted early or absentee were interviewed by landline telephone over the last week. Results for the full sample were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

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On the Net:

Methodology details: http://surveys.ap.org/exitpolls/

 

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