CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sen. Hillary Clinton is returning to West Virginia for a campaign stop, this time to endorse fellow Democrat Anne Barth.
The former first lady is scheduled to stump for Barth on Friday at the University of Charleston. The rally is free and open to the public.
Clinton last visited West Virginia just before her overwhelming win in the state's May presidential primary.
Barth is challenging Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, the only Republican in West Virginia's congressional delegation, in the 2nd Congressional District.
Several national political analysts have rated the 2nd District race as competitive, though Capito is favored.
Despite Clinton's victory in the state primary, Sen. Barack Obama captured the Democratic Party nomination and is fighting Republican Sen. John McCain for the presidency. Clinton contested the nomination to the end, but has since headlined several fundraisers and made several campaign appearances for Obama, as has her husband, former president Bill Clinton.
Tom Vogel, who heads Obama's presidential campaign in West Virginia, said he wasn't sure how much Clinton would stump for Obama during her visit.
"I know everywhere she goes she does campaign for Sen. Obama. I would hope that she would talk about and campaign for Sen. Obama when she's in town," he said, shortly after he learned for sure Monday afternoon that Clinton would be in Charleston on Friday.
"She's very popular," Vogel said. "I think she helps Anne Barth, I think she helps Barack Obama, I think she helps the whole Democratic ticket coming in.
Clinton will focus mostly on Barth, said Barth spokeswoman Talley Sergent, but will stump for Obama as well.
"She's been supporting Sen. Obama wherever she goes," Sergent said. "I don't think that's going to change here.
Barth was a longtime former aide to one of Clinton's Senate colleagues, Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
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WV has loved the Clinton's for years and BHO didn't even bother to campaign here in the primaries and allowed the talking heads to paint us as racist. He will never get my vote.
"And cautionary notes remain for Sen. Obama. The poll suggests that the first African-American to win a major party nomination could be vulnerable to race-based attacks tying him to unpopular black figures such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor and Al Sharpton, an outspoken and controversial figure.
Thirty-five percent of all voters -- and 40% of white voters -- said those connections bother them. This is absent any candidate or party pressing hard on those themes, something Republicans have hinted they may start to raise more aggressively in the campaign's closing days."