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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's endorsement follows Hillary Clinton's victory in his home state, Nevada, which held its Democratic caucuses last week. | AP Photo Harry Reid endorses Hillary Clinton

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced his endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, saying the former secretary of state would be a better president for the middle class than her rival Bernie Sanders.

“I think the middle class would be better served by Hillary,” he told CNN. “I think that my work with her over the years has been something that I have looked upon with awe.”

Reid’s delayed backing comes after Clinton’s victory in his home state, Nevada, which held its Democratic caucuses last Saturday. After an extremely narrow victory in Iowa, Clinton lost New Hampshire to Sanders by double digits before her 6-point win in Nevada.

The retiring senator initially held off on endorsing Clinton in effort to boost Democratic registration in Nevada — the state Democratic Party allows same-day registration. POLITICO reported earlier this month that Reid’s neutrality was partly an effort to spike voter registration to help a Democrat maintain his Senate seat in November.

“I’m more concentrated on what effect my endorsement has in Nevada, OK? Eight years ago, we registered 30- to 40,000 new Democrats,” Reid said at the time. “Tens of thousands, it was unheard of. For me to endorse somebody would just take away the focus on the caucus.”

Reid said he told Sanders on Tuesday that he would be backing Clinton.