Hillary Clinton will declare her strong support for Barack Obama’s White House bid and rally supporters around him, she said in a letter on Thursday, drawing the curtain on a gruelling 16-month nominating fight that badly split the Democratic Party.
Clinton will publicly back Obama on Saturday and pledge to work for party unity in the general-election race against Republican John McCain.
"On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy," the New York senator and former first lady said in a letter to her backers released early on Thursday morning.
"I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party’s nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise."
Clinton confirmed she would hold an event in Washington on Saturday to thank everyone who had backed her campaign. The event was originally planned for Friday but the day was switched to allow more supporters to attend.
"This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans," she said in the letter.
"I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise."
Clinton has not decided whether to officially close the campaign or suspend it, allowing her to keep control of her delegates to the nominating convention, aides said.
Clinton spent much of Wednesday talking to supporters, many of whom urged her to halt her bid now that Obama has clinched the nomination. Obama attended two fund-raising events in New York City on Wednesday night and acknowledged her decision.
"Your junior senator from New York engaged in an extraordinary campaign," he told attendees at one fund-raiser.
"Now that the interfamily squabble is done, all of us can focus on what needs to be done in November."
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