Ellison Passes Over Klobuchar, Endorses Sanders for President

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has endorsed (again) Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont for president, straying from a pack of Minnesota politicians who are supporting hometown candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the race.

“Kamala, Julien [sic] and Pete all did very well. Elizabeth showed why she is a true leader; champion of working families everywhere. But Bernie Sanders dominated both nights with the force of ideas, which have been consistent throughout his service. I support him—like I did last time,” Ellison wrote on Twitter early Friday morning after the second night of Democratic debates.

Kamala, Julien & Pete all did very well. Elizabeth showed why she is a true leader; champion of working families everywhere. But @BernieSanders dominated both nights with the force of ideas, which have been consistent throughout his service. I support him – like I did last time.

— Keith Ellison (@keithellison) June 28, 2019

Ellison was one of the first members of Congress to support Sanders’ 2016 bid for the presidency. Sanders, in turn, supported Ellison in his run for DNC chair in 2017, and his 2018 campaign for his current role as Minnesota’s attorney general.

Ellison told The Star Tribune that his endorsement of Sanders shouldn’t be considered a slight against Klobuchar.

“I definitely appreciate and admire Senator Klobuchar. I’m very proud of the work she’s done,” said Ellison. “But I have been a supporter of those policies that Senator Sanders is championing right now.”

The Sanders campaign promoted Ellison’s endorsement in a press release Friday, quoting him as saying that the “most pressing issue of our time is inequality.”

“For working-class people, they can’t really thrive and grow in this economy. And Bernie has the best prescriptions now and over the course of time has demonstrated the most consistent commitment to working families,” Ellison said.

Ellison spoke with the Huffington Post about his endorsement, touting the fact that Sanders “was getting arrested fighting for fair housing in the ‘60s.”

“There are photos of it. Bernie has a consistent history,” Ellison added, saying Sanders has the “spine to confront” income inequality in America.

“The wealthy in our society are accumulating more and more wealth which they use to influence government and corrupt democracy,” he continued. “We need somebody with the spine to confront it.”

Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Tina Smith, and Reps. Dean Phillips (D-MN-03), Angie Craig (D-MN-02), and Collin Peterson (D-MN-07) have all indicated that they will support Klobuchar in the primaries. But Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) could follow Ellison’s lead, since she is more ideologically aligned with Sanders and recently appeared at a press conference with him to unveil her plan for cancelling student debt.

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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bernie Sanders” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.