Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico will endorse Senator Barack Obama for president today, according to several reports.

The endorsement by the nation's most prominent Hispanic official is a blow to the campaign of Hillary Clinton and could solidify Obama's status as the Democratic front-runner ahead of the next primary, in Pennsylvania on April 22.

"I believe he [Obama] is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America's moral leadership in the world," Richardson said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. "As a presidential candidate, I know full well Senator Obama's unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation."

Richardson will appear with Obama at a rally at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon, at 9:30 a.m. local time, ABC News reports.

Richardson, who dropped out of the Democratic race for the nomination in January, had been heavily courted by both sides. As a governor, he is a superdelegate to the Democratic convention.

Moreover, notes Patrick Healy of the New York Times "as the nation's only Hispanic governor, Mr. Richardson could become a champion for Mr. Obama among Hispanic voters, who have been a key voting bloc for Mrs. Clinton in the primaries thus far."

Richardson served as ambassador to the United Nations under Bill Clinton.