(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama has surpassed Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race for superdelegates, according to CNN's latest count.
Obama on Monday picked up an endorsement from Tom Allen, a Maine representative and U.S. Senate candidate.
"Most of the primary voters across the nation have now spoken. It is time to bring a graceful end to the primary campaign.
"We now need to unify the Democratic Party and focus on electing Sen. Obama and a working majority in the United States Senate. That is how we can change the direction of the country," Allen said.
Allen said Obama and Clinton are both "supremely qualified to be president."
Obama released a statement praising Allen's record, saying, "I'm thrilled to be working alongside him in this critical election, and I look forward to working with him as president."
With Allen's endorsement, Obama now leads in the race for superdelegates, 274 to Clinton's 273.
At the beginning of the year, Clinton led the superdelegate race by more than 100.
Superdelegates are party leaders and officials who will vote for the candidate of their choice at the Democratic convention in August.
The focus of the Democratic race has largely turned to the superdelegates because they outnumber the remaining pledged delegates that are up for grabs.
Obama has a comfortable lead in overall delegates, 1,865 to Clinton's 1,697.
The Democrats next face off Tuesday in West Virginia, where Clinton is expected to win by big margins.
Her campaign is renewing the argument that if she leads in the popular vote, she should be the Democratic nominee.
"Hillary is within striking distance of winning the popular vote nationwide -- a key part of our plan to win the nomination," campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a letter to supporters Sunday.
"That means we need every last vote we can get in West Virginia on Tuesday and in the races to follow."
Her campaign is trying to turn out the vote in the remaining six contests, hoping the popular vote argument will persuade superdelegates to endorse her instead of Obama.
Clinton's campaign has argued that she would be more electable in a general election because she has done well in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Florida and Michigan, which were stripped of their delegates.
West Virginia is also a key swing state. Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996, and George Bush carried it in 2000 and 2004.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, an uncommitted superdelegate, said the delegate numbers are in Obama's favor, but the popular vote is important to the people of his state.
"I think we see what happened in 2004, when Al Gore won the popular vote, and where the country has gone and the feelings toward government since then. I put a lot of stock in that," he said on CNN's "American Morning."
"If the people believe that it was over, they wouldn't be voting maybe in the way they might vote tomorrow or in the next few campaigns," he said.
Clinton is expected to trounce Obama in West Virginia, but Manchin said he thinks Obama would also be able to carry the state in the general election.
The senator from New York has a 43-percentage-point advantage over Obama, 66 percent to 23 percent, according to a survey from the American Research Group released Friday.
The poll was conducted after last Tuesday's contests and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Following Obama's double digit win in North Carolina and Clinton's narrow victory in Indiana, party leaders have suggested Clinton has reached the end of her campaign.
But Clinton has vowed to stay in the race until someone gets enough delegates to clinch the nomination.
Just 28 delegates are up for grab in West Virginia.
Source : CNN .
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