WASHINGTON -- With an endorsement from President Barack Obama said to be unlikely until after Democrats pick their presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton instead is turning to members of his Cabinet for help in securing that nomination.
Obama's housing chief, Julian Castro, campaigned for Clinton this weekend in Nevada and Iowa. Clinton recently accepted the endorsement of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and appeared in South Carolina with former Attorney General Eric Holder. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, and Labor Secretary Tom Perez also are among the current and former officials who have publicly declared their support.
The high-level endorsements come as Clinton tries to undercut her main rival, Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders, by casting him as fair-weather friend to her former boss. She has called out Sanders for suggesting in 2011 that Obama should face a second-term primary challenge, and for criticizing Obama for taking donations from Wall Street.
Sanders' campaign has embraced the outsider status.
"We're proud of the endorsements we've gotten from millions of Americans who are supporting Bernie in taking on the rigged economy and the corrupt campaign finance system that props it up," campaign manager Jeff Weaver said.
Obama administration officials are hardly the flashiest of endorsements, and his Cabinet hasn't produced lots of household names. Clinton was the most recognizable.
But each helps reach some important group -- blacks, Hispanics, labor, Iowans.
"You're happy to have them all," said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum. "They each have a marginal impact, but a marginal impact matters when you're weeks before Iowa."
The officials have their own motivations for signing on early.
Castro, a 41-year-old former San Antonio mayor, hasn't shot down speculation that he could find himself on the ticket with Clinton. His turns on the campaign trail could prove to be an audition.
"There are rumors you're in vice president training camp," Stephen Colbert asked Castro, when Castro was on The Late Show. "What does that involve other than staying awake behind someone giving the State of the Union address?"
Castro laughed but didn't dispel the rumors.
Like other Cabinet members, Castro has reached out to targeted audiences. He announced his support to a largely Hispanic crowd at a San Antonio rally in October. Clinton said she would "look hard" at Castro as a running mate.
Obama has said he will not endorse during the primary, and he and his aides are treading carefully.
White House officials say they have not offered any formal guidance to Cabinet members who have decided to wade into the race before the boss, only that they give the White House a courtesy heads up before they go public with their support.
There's no prohibition on reminding people who you work for and why your support matters.
"As someone who has had a front row seat, I sure as hell don't want to see the progress we made go backward," Perez said during a visit to a Las Vegas union office in December. "And that's why, folks, I'm going to say I'm proud as hell of the fact that I have had the privilege of working for Barack Obama and I'm proud as hell to endorse Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States."
In another development on the campaign trail, the possible independent presidential candidacy of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg drew reactions from Republican and Democratic candidates Sunday.
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, dismissed Bloomberg as "just a private citizen who owns a big company." Clinton said she would "relieve" Bloomberg of any need to enter the presidential race. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey was uncharacteristically charitable, calling Bloomberg "a good mayor" of New York City.
After learning that Bloomberg had ordered his advisers to draw up a possible plan to seek the presidency, the candidates uniformly sought to project a lack of anxiety, despite the former mayor's immense wealth and willingness to spend $1 billion on a third-party candidacy that would bypass their party's primaries.
Clinton, who remains close with Bloomberg, was the most pointed. She seized on comments from Bloomberg's team that the former mayor would be less likely to run if she won the Democratic nomination.
"The way I read what he said is, if I didn't get the nomination we might consider it," she said on NBC's Meet the Press.
She added: "Well, I'm going to relieve him of that and get the nomination so he doesn't have to" run.
Sanders quickly incorporated Bloomberg's flirtation into his message.
"My reaction is, if Donald Trump wins and Mr. Bloomberg gets in, you're going to have two multibillionaires running for president of the United States against me," Sanders said on Meet the Press. "And I think the American people do not want to see our nation move toward an oligarchy, where billionaires control the political process."
Trump gamely encouraged Bloomberg to enter the race. "I'd love to compete against Michael," he told CBS' Face the Nation.
But he mischievously suggested that Bloomberg was chronically indecisive. "He's wanted to do this for a long time. He's never pulled the trigger," said Trump, who himself had flirted with earlier presidential bids only to decide against running -- until this time.
Bloomberg entered politics as a Republican but changed his party affiliation to Independent and has embraced traditionally liberal social causes, like same-sex marriage and gun control.
"Don't agree with his stance on the Second Amendment and some other issues," Rubio said on Fox News Sunday.
Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Hennessey of The Associated Press and by Michael Barbaro of The New York Times.
A Section on 01/25/2016