Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is throwing her support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, joining fellow first-year Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in endorsing the progressive senator.
Omar confirmed her endorsement of Sanders in a tweet Wednesday morning after Sanders took the stage for the latest Democratic debate.
Omar added that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is also endorsing Sanders’s presidential bid.{mosads}
“Proud to endorse @SenSanders for President, glad that @AOC and @RashidaTlaib are on board too. It’s time,” Omar tweeted.
“Bernie is leading a working-class movement to defeat Donald Trump that transcends generation, ethnicity and geography,” Omar said in a statement.
Sanders in his own statement called Omar “a leader of strength and courage.”
“She will not back down from a fight with billionaires and the world’s most powerful corporations to transform our country so it works for all of us. I’m proud of what we’ve done in Congress, and together we will build a multiracial working class coalition to win the White House,” he added.
The endorsements give Sanders the backing of three out of the four progressive freshman lawmakers who make up “the squad,” with only Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) not yet publicly endorsing a candidate.
Pressley comes from the same state as one of Sanders’s top competition for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has gained in the polls in recent months and has appeared to cut into Sanders’s support among progressive voters.
Warren previously picked up the endorsement of the Working Families Party, a key progressive group that backed Sanders in the 2016 election.
Sanders made his first national appearance at a debate Tuesday night since a heart procedure temporarily sidelined him.
He promoted his upcoming rally in Queens and teased the presence of a “special guest,” noting that he will continue “mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country.”