Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis is endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden for president, the Biden campaign announced Tuesday morning.
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Democratic presidential candidate, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (3r top), Reverend Al Sharpton, and Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) (R) listen to US Representative John Lewis (D-AL) speak as they march march during the Annual Bloody Sunday March across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 1, 2020. (Photo by JOSHUA LOTT/AFP via Getty Images)
Lewis, who has represented the people of Georgia for 17 terms in the House, is a civil rights hero and marched on Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, back in 1965. In a statement released by the campaign, Lewis urged young black voters in Georgia and other states to rally behind Biden. To date, Biden’s support, especially among members of the black community, has trended significantly older, and he has failed to pull some of Sanders’ more enthusiastic young backers.
“If we fail to vote, we don’t count. The vote is the most powerful, nonviolent tool we have in society, and we must use it,” Lewis’ statement reads. “We have a choice.”
“I have stared down the deepest, and darkest forces in this nation,” he continued. “Vice President Joe Biden and I both believe that we are in a fight to redeem the soul of America. I know Joe Biden as a man of character and dignity — a man who can not, and will not rest when he sees injustice in our American home.”
Democratic presidential hopeful former US vice president Joe Biden speaks to CNN news anchor Dana Bash as Senator Bernie Sanders leaves the stage after both men took part in the 11th Democratic Party 2020 presidential debate in a CNN Washington Bureau studio in Washington, DC on March 15, 2020 (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Lewis also told reporters that Biden should pick a “woman of color” to be his running mate. The former vice president previously pledged to select a woman to fill his old job and both California Sen. Kamala Harris and former Georgia House of Representatives Minority Leader Stacey Abrams have both been floated as potential candidates for the ticket.
Biden spent a portion of Monday speaking with President Donald Trump about the federal government’s coronavirus response. (RELATED: Pro-Trump Super PAC Launches First Wave Of Anti-Biden Ads In Key Battlegrounds)
Trump referred to the exchange as a “very friendly conversation” and told reporters at Monday’s White House coronavirus task force briefing that he “appreciated” Biden’s input on the subject.
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