Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses Thursday in the first major test in the race for the Democratic and Republican presidential nomination, respectively.

The precincts' official reports for the Democrats showed Obama received 38 percent of the vote, followed by former vice presidential nominee John Edwards with 30 percent and Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York with 29 percent.

"They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose," Obama told his supporters. "But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what cynics said we couldn't do."

Separately, Huckabee, who rode a surge in recent polls, called his victory in this midwestern state in remarks to his supporters the beginning of a "new day" in U.S. politics.

"A new day is needed in American politics just like a new day is needed in American government. But tonight it starts here in Iowa," he said.

Huckabee, a Baptist preacher-turned-politician, garnered 34 percent against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's 25 percent, according to U.S. media.

The Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday are just the start of the nomination clashes but provide an early picture of who will face off in the November presidential election.

Most polls had suggested a race too close to call on either side, with Democrats Obama, Clinton and Edwards and Republicans Huckabee and Romney in a dead heat.

With his Iowa triumph, Obama took a major step toward becoming the nation's first black president. Clinton, a former first lady, is vying to become its first woman president.

Clinton renewed her determination to eventually become president.

"Today, we are sending a clear message that we are going to have change and that change will be a Democratic president in the White House in 2009," she said. "I am as ready as I can after having had this incredible experience here in Iowa."

On the Republican side, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who leads national polls in the party field, largely bypassed Iowa and is trailing Arizona Sen. John McCain and Romney in New Hampshire, and is focusing now on the Florida primary on Jan. 29.

This year's campaign is the most open White House contest in more than half a century, with no incumbent president or vice president seeking their party's nomination.