By Brett Samuels
(Source: The Hill)
Vice President Harris’s campaign on Friday touted the endorsement of more than 50 former football players, including multiple Super Bowl champions.
The former players all hail from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and the campaign touted their support to mark National Black Voter Day. The alums signed onto a letter praising Harris’s “integrity, values and demonstrated commitment to justice and equality of opportunity.”
The signatories include Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Richard Dent, who attended Tennessee State University; Art Shell, a Maryland Eastern Shore alum who was the NFL’s first Black head coach in modern history; former Green Bay Packer and Super Bowl champion Donald Driver, who attended Alcorn State; and NFL coach and Super Bowl champion Leslie Frazier, another Alcorn State alum.
“We encourage all citizens to study the candidates and issues and make their own judgments. We have done so, and are inspired and proud of the leadership that President Harris and Vice-President Walz will provide,” the HBCU alums wrote in the letter, which was first shared with CBS News. “But throughout our careers we have competed on the merits, and we respect the rights of others to compete now and reach their own conclusions about candidates.”
The rollout of the letter from former football players comes as the Harris campaign spent the week ramping up its outreach around voter registration. The campaign is sending surrogates to college campuses to encourage young people to register to vote.
Friday marked National Black Voter Day, and the campaign is engaging with students on HBCU campuses. The campaign is expected to use weekend HBCU football matchups between Howard and Hampton, North Carolina A&T vs. North Carolina Central, and Grambling State vs. Jackson State to connect with voters.
