ST. LOUIS, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Sen. John Kerry, the winner in the first U.S. campaign season tests, has picked up key backing in Missouri, the biggest delegate prize in next week's primaries.
Kerry, D-Mass., won the Iowa caucuses and then the New Hampshire primary, and on Wednesday turned to next week's contests in which Missouri accounts for more than a quarter of the 269 Democratic Party Convention delegates at stake next week.
Missouri had been generally ignored because of the candidacy of favorite son Rep. Dick Gephardt, but the Missouri Democrat dropped out of the presidential race the day after the Iowa caucuses, leaving 74 delegates up for grabs.
Former Sens. Jean Carnahan and Tom Eagleton formally endorsed Kerry on Wednesday when Kerry made his first post-New Hampshire stop in St. Louis.
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., was endorsed in Missouri by Rep. Ike Skelton, Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell, Kansas City, Mo., Councilman Terry Riley, former Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Emanuel Cleaver and former state Democratic Party Chairman Joe Carmichael.
Primary elections are set for Tuesday in Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina. New Mexico and North Dakota will select delegates though the caucus system that same day.
