Braun folds tent to endorse Dean

CARROLL, Iowa, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun withdrew from the Democratic presidential nomination race and endorsed Howard Dean four days before the Iowa caucuses.

"This campaign has been a wonderful learning experience for me, one that restored my faith in the political process and renewed my belief in the goodness of the American people," the former Illinois senator and ambassador to New Zealand at Carroll (Iowa) High School said Thursday.

"I am here today to thank those Iowans who were prepared to stand for me in Mondays' caucuses and to ask that you stand instead for Howard Dean."

Dean and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who endorsed the former Vermont governor earlier, praised Braun for championing the cause of women and African-Americans. Eight men remain in the race.

Her endorsement may not mean much in Iowa or New Hampshire but could make a difference with African-American voters in the South, beginning with the Feb. 3 South Carolina primary.

Braun's long-shot campaign was deeply in debt and national polling numbers hovered around 1 percent. She was on the primary ballots in 20 states, six more than late Brooklyn congressman Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to run for president, 32 years ago.