(Published December 7‚ 2003)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean rallied about 400 supporters at a downtown hotel Sunday with the announcement of his latest supporter - Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Jackson's endorsement could help broaden the New Englander's appeal to black voters who are expected to make up much of the electorate in the South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary Feb. 3.

Jackson said the former Vermont governor would fight for jobs, education and health care for all Americans, not just the wealthy.

It was Dean's first visit to the state since being pressured into apologizing for urging Democrats to court Southern whites who display Confederate flags on their pickup trucks. Critics said Dean misunderstood Southerners.

Jackson, a Greenville native, defended Dean's remarks a month ago and had been expected to endorse the his presidential bid.

Jackson's father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination himself in 1984 and 1988, has endorsed none of the nine candidates in the 2004 campaign.

Dean, who was in town to open his first campaign office in the state, also attended church a service at Columbia's Community Christian Methodist Episcopal.

Dean "made a great impression," said churchgoer Mary Lucas. "We need more jobs, we need a better education system. ... I hope he does get elected so he can do some of those things he talks about."

Lucas, 60, then followed Dean to the standing-room crowd at a hotel just blocks away from where the Confederate flag flies on the state Capitol's grounds.

Dean has raised more money than his eight Democratic rivals, but is one of the last to open a campaign office in South Carolina.

In his endorsement speech, Jackson talked about South Carolina's role in the Civil War to stir support for Dean's campaign.

Jackson recalled efforts made to resupply Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on the eve of the Civil War. Secessionists saw firing on the fort as an opportunity to draw blood and force other states to stop procrastinating and make secession decisions, Jackson said.

Now, 143 years later, "South Carolinians must strike a decisive blow to put America back to work" and must deliver "the long overdue supplies to the American people," Jackson said. "The procrastinating states" now are waiting for South Carolina to lead the Dean nomination effort, he said.

After Dean's speech, he called people to come forward to register to vote. Those who came forward included a man wearing a coat decorated with a Confederate flag.