WASHINGTON — Former Sen. John Edwards on Wednesday endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president, throwing his stature as a populist champion of the working class behind a one-time rival whose failure to appeal to such voters has been his chief political weakness through the late primary season.
“The Democratic voters in America have made their choice, and so have I,” Edwards told an estimated 12,500 cheering Obama supporters at a rally for their candidate in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Edwards’ decision comes too late to affect crucial primaries and too late for Edwards to get much credit for being an Obama loyalist.
But it’s nevertheless a blow to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had courted the former North Carolina senator heavily since he dropped his presidential bid on Jan. 30 and was hoping to relish her big win Tuesday in West Virginia a little longer.
Edwards’ endorsement came hours after the abortion-rights group NARAL deserted Clinton after years of support to endorse Obama as well. The joint endorsements suggest that despite Clinton’s big victory Tuesday and her determination to keep fighting for the nomination, important parts of the Democratic Party are jumping aboard the Obama bandwagon before they’re left behind.
Clinton vowed to stay in the race.
“We respect John Edwards,” her campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said. “But as the voters of West Virginia showed last night, this is far from over.”
Only five Democratic primaries remain. The last ones are on June 3.
Edwards had controlled 19 pledged delegates, who are now free to vote for whomever they please. To win the nomination takes 2,026 delegates, and Obama is closing in on a majority.
Sounding as interested in a spot on the ticket as he did in 2004 when he became John Kerry’s running mate, Edwards repeated his own campaign theme of “one America” and a desire to end poverty, curb the power of Washington lobbyists, create universal health care and restore the nation’s reputation globally. He said that Obama could achieve those goals as a man of “bold leadership.”
Edwards also praised Clinton as “made of steel” and lauded the former first lady as “a leader in this country not because of her husband but because of what she has done.”
Political scientists said Edwards’ timing had some advantage for both Obama and for Edwards if he’s angling for vice president.
“It’s a story that tackles the biggest problem Obama faces,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University history professor, speaking of Obama’s trouble winning working-class white voters, who like Edwards and Clinton.
“And it’s a nice reminder for the Obama team of what Edwards might bring to the ticket. Obama needs to get these voters. There’s a real fear that (presumptive Republican nominee John) McCain could pick up Democratic voters in states like Ohio and Florida, white working-class voters that are not enthused about Barack Obama either for racial reasons, elite reasons, whatever.”
Explaining her group’s backing of Obama, Nancy Keenan, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement that Obama is certain to secure the nomination and that his differences with McCain on abortion rights and the selection of judicial nominees “will be a major reason many voters, especially pro-choice independent and Republican women, will cross party lines to support Sen. Obama in the fall.”
