Biden, Sanders pick up key endorsements ahead of vote
London, Monday
Democratic presidential hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders secured crucial endorsements from prominent black supporters ahead of Tuesday, when the first round of voting to pit them in a head-to-head contest.
Biden on Monday picked up a prize endorsement from a former rival, Cory Booker, just a day after Senator Kamala Harris, who was the only black woman in the Democratic field, endorsed him.
Booker, the New Jersey senator, tweeted: “The answer to hatred and division is to reignite our spirit of common purpose.”
He added that Biden “won’t only win - he’ll show there’s more that unites us than divides us”.
Both Harris and Booker, were expected to appear alongside Biden at a rally in Detroit, Michigan, on Monday night.
Sanders, on the other hand, won the backing of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson as the rival candidates competed for African American support—a key demographic in the fight for the party’s nomination.
Voters in six states go to the polls Tuesday, a week after the “Super Tuesday” elections dramatically reversed the two men’s fortunes, snatching the frontrunner’s title from Sanders and revitalising Biden, who now holds a lead in delegates to the nominating convention.
Biden did well on Super Tuesday in Southern states with large black populations, states similar to Mississippi, which votes Tuesday. And in Missouri, a Midwestern state also voting Tuesday, one recent poll gives him a 22-point lead.
That makes Michigan, the day’s biggest prize, an almost must-win for Sanders. A survey in that north-central state last week gave Biden a six-point advantage.
“Joe has been there for Michigan when our back was against the wall,” Governor Gretchen Whitmer said.
Close race
Michigan’s critically suffering auto industry received a major boost in 2008 from a massive intervention under the administration of Barack Obama and Biden.
But Whitmer predicted a close race on Tuesday; Sanders has a large organisation in Michigan with considerable union support. Also voting Tuesday are Idaho, North Dakota and Washington state.
Sanders, desperate to kickstart his campaign after losing 10 of the 14 Super Tuesday states, has canceled plans to speak in Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois in order to focus on Michigan.
Jackson endorsed Sanders at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, repaying the self-described democratic socialist for having supported his 1988 bid for the White House. “I stand with Bernie Sanders today because he stood with me,” Jackson said.
Harris said she was backing Biden, a centrist who touts his ability to work with Republicans, because she believes he can best unify the country going into the crucial November elections against Donald Trump.
Eight other former Democratic candidates, including Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke, had earlier endorsed Biden. -AFP
