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AP House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Monday he is endorsing Barack Obama for president and trying to get other South Carolina superdelegates to back the Illinois senator. Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, told The Associated Press he wanted the party to get behind one candidate. When asked whether he was urging superdelegates to back Obama, Clyburn said, "Oh yeah. Sure I'm asking 'em." "I don't know who all will do it, but I've asked them," he said. Clyburn said he planned to make a formal announcement Tuesday. Obama's campaign did not immediately respond to questions about Clyburn's endorsement, which comes more than four months after Obama won the Democratic primary in South Carolina and after a year of Clyburn deflecting questions about who'd get his backing. Clyburn said Monday that he's called U.S. Rep. John Spratt, who is uncommitted; and Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman backing Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also called Tim Moore, the lone remaining John Edwards delegate who isn't already endorsing Obama. Obama needs about 42.5 delegates to get the 2,118 needed to secure the presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton would need about 200.

Moore, reached later in the day, said he'd support whomever Clyburn and Spratt pick.

"It's really hard to turn the congressman down when something will help the state of South Carolina," Moore said of Clyburn's lobbying.

Spratt spokesman Chuck Fant said his boss wasn't talking about an endorsement for now and wouldn't confirm Clyburn's calls to back Obama or word that Spratt and Clyburn would make a joint announcement Tuesday. Spratt previously has said he'd do as his House district did in the primary, which handily backed Obama.

Fowler said he respects Clyburn but does "not plan to change my candidate affiliation tomorrow." He said he would back Obama only if Clinton doesn't get the nomination.

Earlier in the campaign, Clyburn explained his lack of endorsement on several fronts: it was a tool to get the first-in-the-South primary and snare the state three debates; House leadership was staying out of the race until the end of the race, and other states needed to hold their contests first.

But he also used his endorsement to try to keep candidates in line. During the heated South Carolina primary, Clyburn publicly urged Bill Clinton to "chill a little bit" and after the election told The New York Times that the former president had offended black voters as he campaigned for his wife. Bill Clinton at one point compared Obama's predicted win to Jesse Jackson's 1988 victory in South Carolina, and supporters of the Illinois senator considered it a slight.