Bowing to intense pressure from her party colleagues, Hillary Rodham Clinton will end her history-making campaign and endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination at an event in Washington on Friday.
Her decision followed a day of consultation with donors, members of Congress and union supporters, who requested her to back Obama for the sake of party unity -- a sentiment that was voiced throughout the day by Democratic Party leaders.
"Clinton will be hosting an event in Washington DC to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity," her campaign's communications chief Howard Wolfson said.
The campaign said in a statement that the event would take place at noon at the National Building Museum in Washington.
The 60-year-old former first lady's decision to formally end the 17-month-old vigorous bid for the presidential nomination comes at the urging of senior party leaders, who want the party to go into the Denver convention in August to elect a nominee, after Obama on Tuesday secured the 2,118 delegates to become the first African American to clinch the nomination.
Some Democratic party leaders were apparently angry that she failed to concede on Tuesday, when it was clear that Obama had clinched the nomination.
Clinton, who ran the strongest campaign ever waged by a female presidential candidate, has said she will throw her full support behind 46-year-old Obama.
"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 said in a letter to her supporters, published in various media reports.
