Harris gets endorsement from key Iowa Democrat

Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-Calif.) presidential campaign gained the endorsement of a key Iowa Democratic activist.

Jean Hessburg, the chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party Women’s Caucus and the former executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party, said she is backing the California senator’s 2020 bid for the White House, shoring up support for Harris in the key caucus state. 

“She has won every single race she has entered because she fights to win,” Hessburg said in a press release.

{mosads}“She supports middle-class working women and men, she’s a friend of labor, and she understands the struggles of everyday Americans. She has fought hard for public schools, the right of women to make their own health care decisions, and immigrant and LGBTQ rights.” 

Harris is trying to distinguish herself in a quickly increasing crowd of contenders running for the Democratic nomination.

The field already has well over a dozen candidates, including Harris’s Senate colleagues Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

Harris cemented her status as one of the pack’s top-tier candidates this month when she declared her campaign raised $12 million in the first quarter of 2019, but she is still competing for endorsements in key states.

“I am so proud to have Jean’s endorsement,” Harris said. “As the Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party Women’s Caucus, she knows that electing record numbers of women to the statehouse and in Congress in 2018 was no accident. When we stand together, support great candidates and work hard, we can make our government look like the people it serves. Women will be a deciding voice in the 2020 Iowa Caucuses and I will do all I can to earn their support.” 

Hessburg will join Harris later Thursday at an Emerge Iowa House Party in Des Moines to celebrate women candidates in the state. Emerge Iowa recruits and trains women to run for office across the Hawkeye State.