Representative Maxine Waters Back Hillary Clinton in Big California Endorsement

California Congresswoman Maxine Waters officially endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday with only one week to go before the Super Tuesday primaries on February 5, including the Democratic primary in California.

The endorsement is significant because Maxine Waters is an African American woman, a voting block that has been torn between voting for an African American in Barack Obama to become the first black president, and voting for Hillary Clinton to become the first woman as president of the United States. California is also the biggest state in the country with the most amounts of delegates in the Democratic primary. The Democratic primary system uses proportion voting instead of winner take all which the GOP uses.

Waters' endorsement isn't as big as say a California Senator or Governor Schwarzenegger, but it still means a lot of Hillary and it is one more endorsement going to her campaign instead of Obama. Maxine Waters is also a high ranking member of the Congressional Black Caucus which is significant because Obama is relying on high turnout and votes from him among African American voters. Such an endorsement from her also weakens the endorsement of the Congressional black Caucus for Obama.

Furthermore, during the South Carolina primary, Obama won in a landslide in part because of the race card that political analysts said that Hillary used against Obama. This worked largely to Hillary Clinton's disadvantage as she alienated African American voters from voting for her. The endorsement of a woman in the Congressional Black Caucus and bring more African American voters back over to her campaign. This will be significant in states with large amounts of African American populations such as in New York and many Southern states like Alabama, Louisiana, etc.

In her endorsement of Hillary Clinton, Maxine Waters stated, "we need someone with the leadership and experience who can step in on day one to tackle the economic challenges our country is facing." Waters would go on to say that, "Hillary understands the daily challenges that people are facing and she will fight for them everyday she is in the White House," according to the Huffington Post.

The economy has certainly been the biggest issue currently at the forefront of American politics. The U.S. Congress is currently engaged in legislation to help the economy using stimulus packages and rebates for Americans.

The endorsement by Waters also is a big step for Hillary because Waters touts her economic plans. Californians want answers on how Obama and Hillary plan on helping the economy and Waters endorsement does exactly that.