The eldest daughter of Eric Garner, the black Staten Island man who died in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by police, endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for President on Friday in a Washington Post column.
“Black Americans—all Americans—need a leader with a record that speaks for itself. And to me, it’s clear. Of all the presidential candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders is our strongest ally,” Erica Garner wrote.
Garner said Black Lives Matter activists who protested Sanders’ rally in Seattle last summer opened the conversation.
“The optics were messy, but he heard us,” Garner wrote. “He prioritized a racial justice platform. He spoke out, in speeches and debates, about Sandra Bland and declared that black lives do matter. He heard us, and I believe he’ll continue to listen.”
Sanders’ rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had already received the endorsement of another high-profile activist: Sybrina Fulton, the mother of slain black teenager Travyon Martin.
