Sanders’s White House bid endorsed by Oregon senator

Jeff Merkley cites Democratic presidential candidate's positions on economy, global warming

By AP and ToI Staff 13 April 2016, 5:05 pm
In this Wednesday, October 8, 2014 file photo, US Senator Jeff Merkley speaks during a campaign rally in Portland, Oregon. (Don Ryan/ AP Photo)

Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon has become the first of Bernie Sanders’s Senate colleagues to endorse his presidential candidacy.

In an op-ed piece in The New York Times and in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show Wednesday, Merkley gave Sanders high marks for resisting trade treaties that Sanders says have cost American jobs.

Merkley said in the broadcast interview that the Vermont senator has on many issues “been out there leading, clearly long before he decided to run.”

In the Times piece, Merkley also cited Sanders’s positions on the dangers of global warming, and the “threats to our economy from high-risk strategies at our biggest banks.” He said that Sanders has fought hard for military veterans, and conceded he has an uphill battle ahead of him to win the Democratic nomination.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) holds a rally outside his childhood home in Flatbush on April 8, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images/AFP)

After winning the Democratic caucuses in Wyoming on Saturday, Sanders has now won seven of the past eight state contests. Still, to win the party nomination, he must take 68 percent of the remaining delegates and uncommitted superdelegates.

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