Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota speaks in support of Democratic presidential nominee Bernie Sanders on Sunday, February 14, 2016. (screen capture: YouTube)
Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“This is not a ‘no you can’t’ campaign. This is not a diminish your dreams kind of campaign. This is a ‘believe in the possibilities we can do together’ kind of campaign,” Ellison, D-Minn., said of the Sanders bid for presidency in introducing the candidate Sunday at the Black America Forum in Minneapolis.
“This is the right campaign if you believe this country can be better than it was,” he added while also praising Barack Obama as “a great president.”
He called Sanders, I-Vt., his “dear friend.”
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) introduces Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) at a forum on race and economic opportunity at Patrick Henry High School on February 12, 2016 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images/AFP)
Ellison asserted that Sanders “believes in true racial justice and equality.”
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
In endorsing Sanders over Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and senator, for the 2016 Democratic nomination, Ellison went against the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus.
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel