WASHINGTON Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn marshaled supporters Monday in their high-stakes battle for U.S. House Democrats' No. 2 leadership spot in the next congressional session.

The internal leadership contest between Hoyer, a convivial white lawmaker from Maryland, and Clyburn, a South Carolinian who is the highest-ranking black member of Congress, took on heightened racial overtones.

The Democrats' loss of the House majority in last week's elections cost them the top post. Current Speaker Nancy Pelosi is running unopposed for House minority leader starting in January, leaving Hoyer and Clyburn to vie for minority whip.

Rep. Barbara Lee of California, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, told colleagues in a letter that it's important to keep an African-American on the party's House leadership team.

"With our country and our party at a crossroads, it is important that we have a leadership team in place that recognizes the strength and diversity of the Democratic caucus," Lee wrote.

Lee ended the letter by asking her House party peers to "join the Congressional Black Caucus" in backing Clyburn for minority whip. Aides declined to say whether she was suggesting that all 41 members of the influential group would vote for Clyburn.

Rep. Bobby Rush, an Illinois African-American, sent colleagues a separate letter backing Pelosi and Clyburn for the top two House Democratic posts in the next session.

Thirty House Democrats - none of them black - sent colleagues their own letter soliciting support for Hoyer, who's served in Congress for three decades.

"Steny Hoyer has an important role to play in defending the accomplishments of this Congress, resisting Republican efforts that would weaken our middle class and rebuilding a Democratic majority," the 30 lawmakers wrote.

The 30 Hoyer supporters include seven Hispanic members, among them Reps. Linda Sanchez, Joe Baca, Dennis Cardoza and Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, and Silvestre Reyes of Texas.

"You may find the politics of race dictates a lot of what happens," Michael Franc, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, told McClatchy.

Clyburn acknowledged that he faces an uphill climb in trying to best Hoyer in the internal House Democratic vote, expected to take place as early as next week.

"I've been the underdog most of my political life, and I probably am the underdog in this race," Clyburn said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Hoyer is considered more moderate than Clyburn, but Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal advocacy group, gives both lawmakers its top rating.

Denying Clyburn a leadership post would offend many members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who will make up more than one-fifth of House Democrats in the next legislative session.

"It (would) send a bad signal to the country, especially leading into a presidential election where African-American turnout is important to Democrats," said Darrell West, a government analyst with the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

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