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U.S. Sen. Barack Obama crept closer toward winning the Democratic presidential nomination Friday — adding a key delegate in South Carolina and pulling nearly even with U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in superdelegates.
State Democratic Party vice chairman and retired Lexington County trucker Wilber Lee Jeffcoat announced he would support Obama. Jeffcoat is one of roughly 800 party leaders who are independent presidential delegates, the so-called superdelegates.
Jeffcoat was among at least nine superdelegates who joined Obama on Friday, putting the senator from Illinois in a virtual tie with Clinton for the number of superdelegates according to The Associated Press’ count. ABC News reported Obama had taken the lead among superdelegates. CNN reported Clinton still had a slight lead.
Clinton also gained two superdelegates.
The developments left the former first lady with 272.5 superdelegates, to 271 for Obama. Little more than four months ago, on the eve of the primary season, she held a lead of 169-63.
Among delegates won in primaries and caucuses, Obama leads with 1,859.5 delegates to 1,698 for Clinton. He is just 165.5 delegates short of the 2,025 delegates needed to win nomination.
Jeffcoat believed it was inevitable Obama would win, and that the Democratic contest should end now before the party is damaged.
“It seems in the news that Hillary won’t be able to catch up,” Jeffcoat said. “I just decided to go ahead and support him to kind of end it. I want to end it without anybody getting hurt.”
Clinton barely defeated Obama in the Indiana primary Tuesday and lost soundly to him in North Carolina. Those results have decreased Clinton’s chance of getting a nomination that once seemed destined to go to her.
West Virginia votes Tuesday. Clinton’s campaign pledged Friday to continue until a candidate secures the nomination, which they believe would require 2,209 delegates — a tally including delegates from Michigan and Florida. Those states’ delegates were barred from the convention for violating party rules regarding their primary dates.
Jeffcoat, who is African-American, said he was displeased by Clinton’s assertion Thursday that white voters prefer her over Obama and that fact makes her a stronger general election candidate. Jeffcoat said that claim was part of his decision to back Obama.
“That and the way she’s campaigned,” he said. “We’d rather not have race injected into it. The longer it goes on, it could.”
The state’s senior Democrat, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, agreed momentum is on Obama’s side.
“We saw some movement,” Clyburn said. “There were some switches.”
Pledged delegates, the ones determined by voters, should have the most weight in determining the nominee, Clyburn said, but not the complete decision. He disagreed about the need to conclude the campaign.
A prolonged Democratic primary was good for building the party in primary states, said Clyburn, who is an uncommitted superdelegate. Obama and Clinton help Democrats farther down the ticket, he said.
“I don’t think it will turn South Carolina (Democratic),” Clyburn said, “but it certainly could have tremendous impact in state legislative races.”
Clyburn said he and other leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives together would choose when to announce their endorsements.
Clyburn, U.S. Rep. John Spratt and state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter are the remaining superdelegates among South Carolina’s nine yet to announce their endorsements.
The Associated Press contributed. Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358. Reach senior writer Washington at (803) 771-8385.
