Gephardt Endorses Clinton for Party Nomination

House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), a once and possibly future Democratic presidential candidate, on Saturday endorsed Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton for the party’s nomination.

“Bill Clinton will be the kind of President the United States needs to recapture our economic strength and leadership in the post-Cold War world,” he said in a statement.

“We need a President with the capacity and personal strength to get our economic act together without pulling people apart,” he said.

Gephardt ran for the Democratic nomination in 1988. He won the Iowa caucuses, but his campaign faltered afterward. The nomination went to then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

Gephardt, the second-ranking House Democrat, passed up this year’s race but came under renewed pressure to run from Democratic lawmakers wary over character questions dogging Clinton.

Clinton “has demonstrated resilience and decency and succeeded in a long and arduous process to communicate ideas to voters that are personally important to me,” Gephardt said Saturday.

Clinton forces hoped Gephardt’s endorsement would set off a bandwagon on Capitol Hill, where many lawmakers have been withholding support. Most House and Senate Democrats will be delegates to the party’s national convention.

Gephardt promised to “work for his election tirelessly,” beginning with a televised endorsement Saturday night on the Cable News Network program “Capital Gang.”