PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – The voters of South Dakota look a lot like those who have favored Hillary Rodham Clinton in presidential primaries this year, but her rival, front-runner Barack Obama, has plenty of friends in high places in this rural state.

Not quite the stone faces atop Mount Rushmore. But most Democrats who’ve won statewide elections, past and present, in predominantly Republican South Dakota have endorsed Obama. These include former Sens. George McGovern, himself the Democratic presidential nominee in 1972, and Tom Daschle, the ex-Senate majority leader, and both Democrats now in Congress, Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin.In addition, the Illinois senator has used his substantial fundraising edge over Clinton to field a larger ground organization
in this sparsely populated state, which allocates only 15 national convention delegates in its June 3 primary but offers a larger psychological prize.

The last two primaries in the Democratic race, South Dakota and neighboring Montana, whose voters will distribute 16 delegates the same day, provide a final opportunity to display vote-getting power that might sway uncommitted superdelegates nationwide. These elected and party officials, whose convention votes are not bound by any primary, will provide the nominee’s final margin of victory unless the final three primaries put Obama over the top.

Obama is generally considered to be narrowly ahead of the former first lady here even though South Dakota’s demographics appear to favor her.