The Associated Press

EL DORADO, Kan. — Democrat Barack Obama intensified a serious effort Tuesday to win what has been a safe Republican state and picked up Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ endorsement for his White House bid.

Hundreds of cheering supporters braved blowing snow and frigid temperatures to crowd into a gymnasium at Butler Community College to see Obama, one week before Kansas’ presidential caucuses. The city fire marshal estimated 1,900 people were in the gym and about 400 more were in overflow areas in other buildings.

Obama has Kansas ties: His mother was born at Fort Leavenworth during World War II, and Stanley Dunham, her father and Obama’s grandfather, was a native of El Dorado. Also, his rally occurred on Kansas Day, the anniversary of the state’s admission to the Union in 1861.

He began his speech by declaring: “We’re among friends here. We’re family.”

He said he could talk about making politics less divisive because of his personal experiences. “It’s a story that began here in El Dorado,” he said.

Democratic presidential candidates long had sought Sebelius’ backing in a state that George W. Bush carried by large margins in the 2000 and 2004 elections. No Democratic nominee for the White House has won Kansas’ electoral votes since 1964, but Sebelius has won two terms and prospered politically.

“Our country is more than a collection of red states and blue states because my story could happen only in the United States of America,” Obama said.

And he pointed to Sebelius: “She’s shown America that the Democratic Party is a party that can run anywhere and win anywhere and lead anywhere.”

Sebelius won re-election in 2006 with nearly 58 percent of the vote, even though less than 27 percent of the voters in Kansas are registered Democrats. Her success has led national Democratic leaders to describe her as one of the party’s brightest stars. She gave the Democratic response to Bush’s State of the Union address Monday night.

“Barack Obama has Midwestern values, values that we know about, and he got them from his grandparents and his mom,” she said after arriving late because of the weather.

Later Tuesday evening, Sebelius joined Obama at a rally of about 2,500 supporters in Kansas City, Mo. Obama touched on recurring campaign themes of the Iraq war, health care and the economy in a 50-minute speech that was interrupted frequently with applause and once by a woman in the front row who appeared faint. Some in the crowd had been waiting more than two hours to hear the candidate speak.

Obama asked if someone could get the woman a chair, and within seconds a chair was sent over the heads of several people in the crowd until it reached the woman.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Obama said. “People helping people.”

State and national Republican Party officials portrayed both Obama and Sebelius as out-of-touch liberals. Christian Morgan, the state GOP’s executive director, said endorsing Obama “does nothing for Kansas.”

“It is simply an attempt by the governor to increase her national visibility at the expense of the people of Kansas,” he said.

Also questioning the significance of Sebelius’ endorsement was Dan Lykins, the state Democratic Party’s treasurer and co-chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign in Kansas.

“What really counts is not who endorses someone, but who gets out and votes in the caucuses and a lot of them have already made up their minds,” Lykins said.

Clinton has three paid staffers in Kansas and opened offices earlier this month in Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita. Obama opened his Kansas headquarters in Lawrence in October and has 18 staff members in the state.

Kansas Democrats will have caucuses at 50 sites on Super Tuesday to split up 32 of their 41 delegates to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver. Sebelius is one of the remaining nine delegates who will represent the state.

Some Obama supporters were jubilant to learn that Sebelius’ endorsement, rumored for months, was official.

“The momentum already was going Obama’s way and this will be like a gust of wind and put him over the top,” said Rep. L. Candy Ruff, of Leavenworth.

Joe Brichacek, a high school senior from Hesston, described himself as an undecided voter before Obama’s speech. Afterward, he said he was “pretty far convinced” to vote for Obama.

“The endorsement of Governor Sebelius means something to me,” said Brichacek, who turns 18 before the November election, making him eligible to participate in the caucuses.

Before traveling to El Dorado, Sebelius said her two “20-something” sons and 86-year-old father, former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, already were backing Obama. In El Dorado, she joked: “I’m here because my two sons are driving me crazy.”

For Obama, it was another in a string of high-profile endorsements in the past two days, following those from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.; and Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy.

But Lykins said Clinton has strong support in Kansas among labor unions and “regular Democrats” who have long been active in the party.

“He’s a good speaker, but that in and of itself should not determine who you should vote for,” Lykins said of Obama. “He can say what he’s going to do, but he hasn’t done it. She’s done it.”