The Christian Century

With the added backing of delegates and superdelegates on the final day of primary elections, Barack Obama declared himself the winner June 3 of the hard-fought Democratic presidential campaign, becoming the Democrats’ presumptive nominee and the first African American to be a major party’s choice for the White House.

Although rival senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said that night that she had won the popular vote in party races—a claim disputed by the Obama camp—and would be the strongest opponent against Republican senator John McCain, she ended her bid to become the nation’s first woman president days later.