Obama met with several undecided superdelegates on Capitol Hill Thursday.

(CNN) — Barack Obama won two more superdelegate endorsements Thursday, narrowing his deficit with Hillary Clinton to seven.

North Carolina Rep. Brad Miller and Washington Rep. Rick Larsen both announced they will cast their superdelegate votes for the Illinois senator.

"The decision was not easy," Miller, a two-term congressman, said in a statement. "Senator Clinton has run an impressive campaign, and has spoken eloquently to the concerns to working and middle class American families. She is one of the great leaders of this generation.

"Senator Obama understands that he has the chance not just to win the election this year, but to be a great president," he added.

Miller's district, which includes Raleigh, overwhelmingly voted for Obama Tuesday, 63 percent to 35 percent.

Larsen, a three-term congressman whose district lies in the northwest area of Washington state, praised Obama as the "best candidate to turn our country's hopes for a better future into reality."

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Expect more superdelegates to come.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Get ready for a deluge of new superdelegates.

All superdelegates -– elected officials and Democratic National Committee members -– are not bound by their states’ results, and can vote for the candidate they choose. Both candidates are fighting just as hard for their support as they are for the votes of the people in the upcoming primary states.

But some superdelegates are unpledged add-ons — individuals selected by each state’s Democratic Party. They are elected at state party conventions, executive committee meetings or delegate meetings, depending on the state. A wave of those events are scheduled for the next few weeks, as states finalize their delegate slates.

Unpledged add-ons can be called superdelegates because they both have the same voting rights — the only difference is that superdelegates are selected before the primaries and caucuses, while unpledged add-ons are selected after the state has voted.

Some of these add-ons pledged their support for candidates before they were elected. Of those elected so far, Obama has officially earned six unpledged add-on votes, while Clinton has earned seven.

In total, there will be 76 unpledged add-on delegates. CNN is keeping track of these delegates, but will only add them to the official delegate after they are officially elected at their states’ meetings. As of today, 13 states have chosen their unpledged add-ons, with the results of today’s Maryland selection still pending.

(CNN) – Democratic National Committee member John Patrick, a 31-year member of the United Steelworkers union and vice president of the Texas AFL-CIO, officially announced his support for Barack Obama Thursday. The nod is Obama’s second superdelegate endorsement of the day.

Earlier Thursday, former DNC Chairman Joe Andrew switched his vote from Clinton to Obama. The superdelegate gap between Clinton and Obama stands at 18 in CNN’s latest count.

"Senator Barack Obama has spent a lifetime standing up for American workers, and he will be a crucial voice for us in the White House,” Patrick said in a statement released by the Obama campaign. “He has consistently opposed unfair trade deals that fail to offer protection to American workers — like NAFTA. Senator Obama has a real plan to put money back in the pockets of working families by restoring the manufacturing base in America."

Patrick had been a supporter of former Senator John Edwards’ presidential bid.

(CNN) – Hillary Clinton can add three superdelegates to her total. Former New Jersey Governors James Florio and Brendan Byrne were elected their state’s unpledged add-on delegates to the convention Thursday. Unpledged add-on delegates have the same voting rights as “superdelegates” and do not need to vote with the primary or caucus results of their home state.

Florio and Byrne endorsed the New York senator last year, along with current “superdelegate” Governor Jon Corzine. Clinton beat Senator Barack Obama in the New Jersey primary in February 54 – 44 percent.

On Friday, Ohio congresswoman and superdelegate Betty Sutton endorsed the New York senator.

Obama claimed four new superdelegate supporters this week.

(CNN) — As the Senate holds major hearings on the war in Iraq, a set of dueling petitions – both featuring presumptive Republican nominee John McCain – are circulating online.

Shortly after his appearance at the Armed Services Committee hearing attended by Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, McCain sent supporters a fundraising appeal that asked them to sign their names to a petition “calling on Senators Clinton and Obama to support our troops on the ground and the mission they are carrying out.”

In the message, McCain said the Democratic candidates “will surely echo the sentiments of their extreme liberal supporters and call for a pre-emptive withdrawal from Iraq. The American people deserve better.

“I encourage both candidates to move beyond empty and destructive rhetoric and elevate the debate to a level that the country deserves. There are tough decisions ahead and America deserves leaders that are up to the challenge.”

Last week, former Army General Wesley Clark’s political action committee, WesPAC, and the anti-Iraq war group VoteVets launched a petition drive urging McCain to pledge his support to a new Iraq veterans benefits bill co-sponsored by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel.

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