By Juana Summers
BALTIMORE (AP) — Two more members of the Congressional Black Caucus are backing Kamala Harris’ bid for the presidency: Reps. Bobby Rush of Illinois and Frederica Wilson of Florida.
Endorsements from the caucus, which counts more than 50 members, could be influential in the Democratic presidential primary. With these two new supporters, Harris now has six endorsements from the CBC.
Rush has been sharply critical of former Vice President Joe Biden in the wake of comments in which he recalled working alongside two segregationist Southern senators. Rush told Politico that Biden, another Democratic presidential candidate, was “wholly out of touch and woefully ignorant of the nuances of the black American experience.” Rush will serve as Harris’ Illinois campaign chair.
Rush said Harris was “the only candidate prepared to fight for all Americans against a Trump Administration that has left them behind” and that she is a “once-in-a-lifetime leader” who “exemplifies what global leadership is all about.”
Harris and Biden clashed during the first Democratic primary debate after Harris, who is Black, directly challenged Biden over his history of opposing school integration through federally ordered busing. Harris said Biden’s recollections of working with the two senators were hurtful.
Harris’s campaign announced on Saturday that she had raised $2 million in the first 24 hours following the start of Thursday’s debate. Aides to her campaign said she received donations from 63,277 people, and that 58 percent of those donors had not contributed to her campaign before.
