Pressley endorses Warren for president

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) on Wednesday endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for president, breaking with the three other members of the “squad” of progressive freshman congresswomen who have backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

“I’m proud to call her my senator. I can’t wait to call her our president,” Pressley said in a video she tweeted Wednesday.

{mosads}“You’ve all heard about the senator’s plans but here’s the thing: The plans are about power, who has it, who refuses to let it go, and who deserves more of it. For Elizabeth and for me, power belongs in the hands of the people,” Pressley said in the video.

“That’s why she’s fighting for fundamental change that restores power to those who’ve been left behind and centers those who’ve never had access to it in the first place,” Pressley added.

Big structural change can’t wait. pic.twitter.com/8Sanof9COD

— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) November 6, 2019

After the other “squad” members — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — endorsed Sanders, Pressley said that, while she had “tremendous respect for her sisters-in-service,” she would make her own endorsement decision.

Pressley is slated to make her first appearance on the campaign trail with Warren at a town hall meeting in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, according to BuzzFeed News.

Pressley, although she has joined the other three congresswomen in endorsing major progressive policy planks such as “Medicare for All” and debt-free college, also served as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries and broke with the other three earlier this year when she voted for a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

“There are a lot of anti-BDS bills out there that infringe on 1st amendment rights at the state and federal level. In my view, HRes 246 wasn’t one of them,” Pressley tweeted after the vote.

“What I heard resounding in community was that voting yes on this resolution affirmed to my constituents raised in the Jewish faith Israel’s right to exist, a view I share as a supporter of a two state solution,” she added.