GRAND FORKS - In the final hours of the North Dakota Democratic state convention on Sunday, Barack Obama supporters won a struggle for the support of a final, single delegate to the party's national convention.

Obama now has the backing of 15 of North Dakota's 21 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which is being held Aug. 25-28 in Denver. Five support Hillary Rodham Clinton, while the 21st, David Strauss, the state party chairman, has stayed uncommitted.

The weekend contest was a reflection of the closeness of the Obama-Clinton Democratic presidential race nationally, which is narrow enough to magnify the importance of a struggle over a single North Dakota delegate.

Both Obama and Clinton spoke during the North Dakota state convention's opening night on Friday, and Democratic officials said the visits of both were motivated by the prospect of improving their North Dakota delegate strength.

On Sunday, Matt Weinstein, the Obama campaign's North Dakota director, and its senior North Dakota adviser, Fargo businessman Dan Hannaher, exhorted sympathetic delegates to stay in the convention hall.

The weekend convention drew almost 1,100 delegates. By midday Sunday, most had left, with many worried that a snowstorm that hit southeastern North Dakota would delay their travel home.

Weinstein and Hannaher wanted to ensure that Clinton's supporters, who gathered elsewhere in the Alerus Center, did not outnumber Obama backers when the two factions met late Sunday afternoon to choose a final national convention delegate.

At one point, Weinstein asked Obama delegates in the hall to call other delegates who had left to see if they could return.

"If anyone sitting in this room knows somebody who should be here, and is not, call them right now," Weinstein pleaded.

North Dakota's national convention delegate selection plan, which Strauss calls "fiendishly complex," divides the 21 delegates into groups.

Thirteen were allocated according to the results of North Dakota's Feb. 5 presidential preference caucuses. Obama won the caucuses with 61 percent of the vote; Clinton got 37 percent, with other candidates dividing up the remainder.

The caucus results suggested Obama should get eight of the 13 delegates, with Clinton getting the remaining five. Although the February vote was advisory, Sunday's delegate selections followed its blueprint. Eight of the 13 delegates are Obama supporters, while five are backing Clinton.

A separate group of seven delegates are "superdelegates" - party officials and North Dakota Democrats who hold elective office. Strauss is a superdelegate, as are Sens. Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy. Six of the seven superdelegates have endorsed Obama; Strauss has remained uncommitted.

The 21st delegate, who also may vote for whomever he or she pleases, was the last one picked on Sunday before the Democratic state convention ended at 3:37 p.m. Hannaher was chosen for the spot, placing first among four candidates with 195 of 304 votes.

"It reflects the Feb. 5 caucus vote," Hannaher said. "I think that reflects well on our caucus system … and bodes well for the future. I think it sorted out very well."

Hannaher said he is confident the Obama delegates will stick with their candidate during any national convention fight.

"Talking to them and talking with their supporters, I am 100 percent convinced that we could go 100 ballots and not lose our strength," Hannaher said. "We have a solid Obama delegation going to Denver."

Gorman King Jr., of Fargo, a national delegate who supports Hillary Clinton, said the delegate selection outcome was fair.

"The people who are elected in this process are people who are here because they feel very strongly about their views," King said. "There's no question that the people who are elected out of our Hillary caucus are committed to Hillary, and I'm confident that people who were elected out of the Obama caucus are similarly committed to him."