Sen. John Edwards' convincing victory in South Carolina keeps him in the presidential race, but he still must prove he can win outside of his home region.

"It's a Kerry-Edwards race, and the other candidates ought to get out of the way," said Dick Harpootlian, former South Carolina Democratic chairman.

The North Carolina senator not only took a commanding lead here but was in a tight race with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and retired Gen. Wesley Clark to win Oklahoma, another of the seven states holding presidential contests Tuesday.

Kerry was expected to win the remaining five states holding presidential contests Tuesday.

But Edwards' win in this first-in-the-South primary still might not take him far, some political analysts said, even if he ekes out a win in Oklahoma.

"It carries him out of South Carolina to Tennessee and Virginia," said Francis Marion University political analyst Neal Thigpen. "But he has to be more than a regional candidate. How does it help him compete in Wisconsin?"

Both South Carolina and Oklahoma are expected to go Republican in the general election, political analysts say. To overcome Kerry's victories in Missouri, Arizona and Delaware, Edwards needs a win in a Midwestern or Western battleground state.

Edwards spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen said the results showed that Edwards can compete in a state with racial diversity and both an urban and rural population.

"We're going to build on that coming out of here," she said.

Interviewed at precincts in this upcountry South Carolina city, voters said they connected with Edwards as a fellow Southerner who understood where they came from and the problems they faced.

"Edwards was born in South Carolina. He knows the conditions in South Carolina for both whites and blacks," said John Thompson, 71, a black retired high school teacher, as he left the polls.

"In the debate, when he said his father worked in the mills when a black man could not, that told me he knew about the condition of black people," Thompson said.

As a New Englander who rarely visited the state, Kerry built little rapport here, even though he was endorsed by most of the state's Democratic establishment.

"Kerry is a little patrician for my taste," said Jeannette Winn, who was working the polls at Augusta Road Elementary School. "Edwards was not afraid to bring up issues like race and poverty. He's holding the lobbyists and big business accountable."

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who hoped he could do well in a state where more than 40 percent of the Democratic voters are black, appeared to be heading for third place, well behind Kerry.

Edwards made much of his birth in Seneca, S.C., and his youth in North Carolina as the son of a mill worker and the first in his family to attend college. He turned his career as a trial lawyer into an asset by saying he stood up for the common man against powerful interests.

"I think voters here wanted somebody who understands them, and Edwards did a good job of portraying that to people," said Danielle Vinson, a Furman University political analyst. "South Carolinians don't like to be told what to do by anyone. Edwards is not a lecturer; he's a sympathizer, and he can retool his message for other parts of the country."

The only states holding primaries next week are Southern -- Virginia and Tennessee. That gives Edwards an edge to build momentum before the Feb. 17 Wisconsin primary.

Republicans dismissed Edwards' win here.

Given the amount of time and money Edwards spent here, "for him not to win walking away would have been a huge upset," said Luke Byars, director of the state Republican Party.

After weeks of being bashed by Democratic advertising, President Bush returns to South Carolina on Thursday to give a speech in Charleston.

"The Democrats are going to find this is still Bush country," Byars said.