South Carolina state Representative Justin Bamberg will announce Monday afternoon that he is withdrawing his support for Hillary Clinton and instead endorsing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Bamberg is well-known as the attorney representing the family of Walter L. Scott, the black man who was killed by a police officer following an April 2015 traffic stop. The Clinton campaign has long viewed South Carolina and its substantial black population as a stronghold for Hillary.
Symone Sanders, a spokesman for the Sanders campaign, told the New York Times, “The Clinton campaign talks about having this firewall” in the South. “You are starting to see cracks in that firewall.”
This is not the first prominent black Democrat to switch their endorsement in the Democratic primary. Back in November, former Ohio state senator Nina Turner announced her support for Sanders. She said at the time, “I’m very attracted by his message and his style — and that he has held pretty much strong on his beliefs and the world is catching up with him.” Turner is currently the engagement chair for the Ohio Democrat Party.
When Bamberg initially endorsed Clinton, he claimed he knew little about Sanders, but after watching him in the debates and speaking with him for 20 minutes on Martin Luther King Day, he grew to like the senator. He said, “[Bernie Sanders] doesn’t think like everyone else. He is not afraid to call things as they are.” (RELATED: Hillary Clinton Allies Ramp Up Efforts To Play Race Card Against Bernie Sanders)
Whereas with Clinton he saw, “a representation of the status quo when I think about politics or about what it means to be a Democrat.”
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