Moseley-Braun Drops Out, Endorses Dean for Democratic Nomination
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 15, 2004
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) — Carol Moseley-Braun, a pro-abortion former Illinois senator, has announced she will drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president. She threw her support to Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who previously served on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood.
Moseley-Braun hoped to secure the support of Democratic women to boost her campaign from the bottom of the ranks.
Some pro-abortion groups, including the National Organization for Women and the National Women’s Political Caucus, backed her candidacy as she was the only woman in the race.
Neither group could muster the support of enough abortion advocates to keep her from staying at the back of the pack. Patricia Ireland, former president of NOW, and ousted as the president of the YWCA, also failed to provide Moseley-Braun’s campaign with enough spark to rise in the polls.
Moseley-Braun endorsed Dean and will appear with him at campaign events in Iowa on Thursday.
Dean said her endorsement would be a "big help" and would provide him with a boost in support among both women and black Americans.
Moseley-Braun failed to qualify for the ballot in several states. Her dismal showing and failure to raise significant funds even led Ireland to declare that Moseley-Braun had no chance of winning.
"We are, what shall we say, a low-budget, independent campaign in the Democratic primaries,” Ireland said last week in response to news that Moseley-Braun would not appear on the ballot in New York. "We really have not been able to cover all the states we would have preferred.”
Ireland admitted Moseley-Braun would not win the Democratic nomination.
"She is certainly not going to be going into the convention with enough delegates to win the nomination," Ireland said.
Moseley-Braun is the second Democratic presidential candidate to leave the field, following pro-abortion Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who withdrew from the race in October.
