Former US President Bill Clinton, who is recovering from heart bypass surgery, will campaign with Democratic Senator John Kerry next week in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania.
The two-term former president may also make separate appearances for Mr Kerry, although no schedule had been set.
At a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, last night, Mr Kerry said he spoke to Mr Clinton briefly by telephone before the event, and that the former president had offered him words of encouragement in his neck-and-neck race against Republican President George W. Bush.
"We were talking about how when the other guys are trying to label you and make you into something you're not," Mr Kerry told several thousand supporters.
"And Bill Clinton and I were talking, and he said, 'You know, when the other guy wants you to stop thinking and he's trying to scare you into not thinking, and you want Americans to think about their future, it's pretty clear who you ought to be voting for.'"
At the mention of Mr Clinton's name, the crowd burst into roars of approval. Democratic strategists hope the former president can help turn out the party's base on November 2nd, especially black voters who have sometimes responded lukewarmly to Mr Kerry.
Mr Clinton, 58, has spent the past six weeks recovering from quadruple bypass surgery at his home in Chappaqua, New York.
He underwent the operation on September 6th at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where doctors said he would have risked a "substantial" heart attack without surgery because some of his arteries were 90 per cent blocked.
Mr Clinton, who served eight years in the White House from 1993 until 2001 and was known for a love of fast food, was admitted to the hospital three days before his surgery after complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath.
Polls show Mr Kerry and Mr Bush tied in Pennsylvania. National surveys also have them in a dead heat.