Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have been lining up behind former Vice President Joe Biden for months. Biden has all but claimed the Democratic nomination for president, and the CBC PAC has now officially unanimously endorsed him for president.
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The Associated Press reports that the CBC PAC endorsed Biden on Monday in a decision that comes two weeks after civil rights icon John Lewis became the 38th member of the CBC to back Biden, announcing his endorsement paired with a recommendation that Biden “look around” and choose a woman of color as his running mate.
CBC PAC Chairman Rep. Gregory Meeks told the AP that Biden is undoubtedly the man who needs to be sitting in the Oval Office.
“There’s no question that Joe Biden is badly needed by this country,” Meeks said. “His leadership, his experience, his understanding on how to get things done and his ability to work and pull people together is needed now more than ever. We need someone that is a healer and not a divider, and that’s Joe Biden.”
Biden’s favor among members of the CBC had become evident long before he became the presumptive presidential nominee. By the end of January, he had already won the endorsements of 15 of the congressional body’s members at a time when no other Democratic candidate had gotten more than one CBC endorsement, according to The Hill.
When Meeks was asked how Democrats can avoid the same defeat they suffered in 2016 after the CBC chose to endorse Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders, he echoed sentiments similar to that of Lewis and other Democrats: When in doubt, listen to black women.
“Black women over-performed in 2016, and had we listened to them, we might not have the person that’s there now,” Meeks said.
Meeks also made his confidence in Biden’s electability clear by saying, “There was a reason why Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to be his vice president. He is the appropriate person now to step forward and take the reins of this great nation of ours.”
In March, CBC chairwoman and California Rep. Karen Bass also expressed confidence in Biden’s ability to win a general election after she announced her own endorsement of the former Delaware senator.
“It’s very clear to me that he is the best person, not just to beat (President Donald) Trump, but he is the person to lead at this time,” Bass said. “I think him having a long-standing history of working with African American communities, most notably in his own state but around the country, was qualitatively different from the other candidates.”
Biden’s victories on Super Tuesday and in South Carolina’s Democratic primary, as well as other state primaries, have shown that he has a lot of support among black voters—a key voting demographic for Democrats—so it’s no surprise that the CBC has shown such overwhelming support for him. Hopefully, their official endorsement will give Biden just the momentum he needs to oust the current man-child-in-chief in the upcoming 2020 presidential race.
Correction: 4/21/2020 1:03 p.m. ET: The headline for this post has been updated to clarify that it is the CBC PAC endorsing Joe Biden unanimously and not the CBC itself.
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