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Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton compete in West Virginia tomorrow in one of six contests left in their bruising battle for the Democratic nomination.

As the long fight draws to a close, a key question for Democrats is whether passionate young supporters of Obama and Clinton will back the party's nominee if their choice doesn't prevail.

University of Richmond student Rasheed Nazeri gave up spring break with friends in sunny South Beach to work for Obama in Scranton, Pa.

Nazeri is a political newcomer who, until hearing Obama, had never felt inspired to campaign for a candidate. Now, he said he'd have a hard time voting for anyone else.

"It's not something I want to talk about at all, but if somehow the Clintons can steal the nomination, I think it's going to turn off a lot of new voters," Nazeri said Tuesday night while watching primary results from North Carolina and Indiana.

Exit polls from Tuesday night's contests showed that the passions roused in the long battle for the Democratic nomination could be slow to cool.

Some voters who came to the party this year because of one candidate say they would consider voting Republican if the other candidate is nominated, while others proclaim party loyalty no matter the nominee.

Seven out of 10 Obama supporters in North Carolina -- and slightly fewer in Indiana -- said they would back Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton against Republican John McCain in November, according to The Associated Press. Just under half of Clinton's backers in both states said they would vote for Obama against the Arizona senator.

Much of that divisiveness will fade, party veterans and supporters say, unless voters think party elders, and not the voting public, decide the Democratic nomination. That could repulse some voters, particularly those who felt disenfranchised previously but re-emerged onto the political scene for Obama, said Tom Shields, director of the Center for Leadership in Education, Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.

"What happens if he doesn't become the nominee? No one knows, but I would say they go back to being disengaged, that they feel this was done in a smoke-filled room . . . that young people don't have a voice and this is just how the world operated," he said.

"Right now, it's just a lot of confusion as to where the party is. I think it's anyone's guess what will happen," he said.

It's tricky to predict which groups of voters will be amenable to supporting a different candidate. Democrats have been splintered in several ways during the primary -- for example, working-class whites and older voters favor Clinton, while black and younger voters back Obama, generally speaking.

The nominee will need time before November to tweak his or her message for a more general audience, Shields said. For Obama, that includes reaching out to parts of the party's base that have leaned to Clinton, such as the working-class whites.

"What's going to happen in the general [election] is going to be very different from what we're seeing now," he said.

One possible salve for primary wounds is a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket, or even the invitation for the vice presidency, though Democrats disagree on the wisdom in that.

Loyal Clinton supporter Christie Goodman said she'd back Obama "because I'm 100 percent dedicated to having a Democrat in office." Though Goodman, 22, admits, "I don't think I can work as passionately as I did for Hillary."

Keyanna Conner, 23, chairwoman of Virginia Commonwealth University's pro-Obama chapter, wants the Democratic primary race to end so she can return to the books and finish her doctorate. Her Obama stint is her first foray into politics, but if he doesn't get the nomination, she'll not leave the party.

"I'll cry, I'll shed my tear and then I'll go to work for the Democratic nominee," said Conner. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm in it to stay in it."

Steve Smith Jr. of Richmond may not be quite as resilient. He voted for President Bush in 2004 but has since supported Democrats. Obama is the first candidate who has truly engaged him, and if he doesn't get the nomination, Smith said, "it'll be hard to go out there and vote."

"It would be a toss-up between Hillary and McCain," said Smith, 34. "I think I would look at the situation fresh again."

Anna Jacobs prefers Clinton but said she would "of course" vote for Obama if he got the nomination.

"That's not a big issue for me personally," said Jacobs, 18, of Charlottesville.

"I prefer her, I think she would do a better job, but I'm going to stick to the party. I think part of the primary season is to choose one candidate who you prefer, but if you're someone like me, I identify myself as a Democrat and I will vote as such."
Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.