Joe Biden boosts Super Tuesday case with Sewell endorsement

Joe Biden has secured a weighty Deep South endorsement for his presidential campaign, with Alabama’s lone Democratic House member on Friday anuncing her support for former vice president. Terri Sewell marks Biden's 11th endorsement from Congressional Black Caucus, far outpacing any or Democratic White House hopeful. Sewell also expands Biden’s footprint across March 3 Super Tuesday primary slate that will play an outsize role in determining Democratic minee.

A Selma, Alabama, native whose congressional district includes seminal sites of civil rights movement, Sewell told Associated Press ahead of her anuncement it was coincidence she chose weekend of Martin Lur King’s birthday observance to make public her 2020 choice.

“ . 1 threat to my district is Donald Trump. . 1 threat to Martin Lur King’s legacy is Donald Trump,” Sewell said of Republican president. “ best way I can counter that threat is to support someone who can beat him.”

Biden, she continued, “has a proven track record of furring what Dr King fought for” and can “protect that legacy” because he can appeal across racial and ideological spectrum.

“Joe has a special combination of vast experience, respectability and aunticity that is well-received by Republicans and Democrats and globally by our allies and foes,” fifth-term congresswoman said. Quoting her mor, she added, “Joe can talk to anyone.”

Sewell will campaign this weekend with Biden in South Carolina, which hosts South's first presidential primary on Feb. 29.

Biden w has virtually swept most coveted endorsements among Alabama Democrats. Sen. Doug Jones is among his earliest supporters, and he recently picked up

55-year-old congresswoman’s mor, Nancy Sewell, added her endorsement Monday, as well. She was first black woman on Selma City Council, elected in decades following Selma-to-Montgomery marches for voting rights.

Alabama, where African Americans are expected to cast a majority of primary ballots, has 52 Democratic pledged delegates at stake, part of 1,357 up for grabs on Super Tuesday. That’s about a third of party's pledged delegates nationally. Biden is in a cluster atop polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, two overwhelmingly white states that begin 2020 voting in early February. But polls consistently show him with a wide lead among black voters who make up significant portions of states that follow, starting with Nevada and South Carolina and continuing through Super Tuesday slate.

Terri Sewell’s anuncement comes after Democrats’ most high-profile black presidential candidates --

Sewell praised diversity of

That’s even more important, Sewell continued, given increasingly overt racism in American society. “Trump has given people a license to be racist, sexist, misogynistic — out loud,” Sewell said. “My district longs for rmality and stability again, and y kw Joe Biden. He is a well-worn shoe we are comfortable with and who we kw will fight for our values.”

Sewell pointed specifically to Biden's work reauthorizing Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 1970s as a young Delaware senator and his efforts as vice president to protect federal money for historically black colleges and universities. Sewell ackwledged criticisms some younger black activists level at Biden over a legislative record that includes him criticizing busing as a school desegregation tool in 1970s and his lead role in pass of 1994 crime law w considered an aggravating factor in mass incarceration.

“ long-serving elected official has a perfect legislative record. ne of us does,” Sewell said, arguing Biden’s legislative experience is a net plus and means he can deliver more meaningful progress on issues including health care and income inequality, even if some of his proposals aren’t as far-reaching as those from Sanders or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

“I like and respect all our candidates; any of m would be better than Donald Trump,” Sewell said. “But Joe can win se battles."