World Jun. 21, 2008 - 06:44AM JST ( 20 )

WASHINGTON —

Hillary Clinton will campaign with White House hopeful Barack Obama next week for the first time since she lost their bruising battle for the Democratic nomination, his campaign said Friday.

Clinton vowed to throw her full support behind the party’s standard bearer when she stepped out of the race on June 7, ending her 17-month-long quest to become the nation’s first woman president.

The former rivals met privately at the Washington home of a fellow senator three days after Obama secured the Democratic on June 3, but Clinton has kept a low profile since the end of their historic nomination race.

The Obama campaign said they will campaign together on June 27, but it said details about their joint appearance would be made available later.

The former first lady fought Obama until the very last primaries on June 3, hoping to convince the Democratic Party that she had a better chance to beat Republican candidate John McCain in the November general election.

While she failed to change the tide, the massive support she garnered across the country in the 17-month-long campaign sparked calls for Obama to pick her as his vice presidential running mate.

Clinton has insisted that she was not seeking the number two spot, but she has also never said whether she would reject the job if it were offered.

Since she dropped out of the race 20 days ago, Obama has sought to woo back women voters disappointed by the defeat of the candidate who came closest to becoming the first female presidential nominee.

Clinton’s support could also help Obama win over white, working-class voters who are crucial in battleground states and favored her during the primaries.

A Fox News poll released Thursday suggested that anger among some Clinton supporters over her primary defeat by Obama was easing.

In April, 32 percent of her voters told the Fox pollsters they would back McCain in November’s election if Obama won the nomination. That now stands at 17 percent, with 68 percent falling in line behind the Democrats’ new champion.

In her emotional farewell speech on June 7, Clinton urged her supporters to fall in line behind Obama, who made history himself by becoming the first black nominee of a major U.S. party.

“The way to continue our fight now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passions, our strengths and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States,” she said then.

“I have seen his strength and determination and his grace and his grit,” Clinton said. “In his own life, Barack Obama has lived the American dream.”

Wire reports