Joe Biden Endorses Tom Perez For DNC Chair

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday endorsed Tom Perez to lead the Democratic National Committee.

Biden is the former labor secretary’s highest-profile endorsement yet, and may substantially boost him in the eyes of the DNC members who will choose their next leader when they meet later this month.

“I’ve seen it in the last eight years as he served as the nation’s top civil rights lawyer and as our Secretary of Labor.” Biden wrote in a statement. “He’s stood up for workers, immigrants, and Americans living with disabilities. He’s fought for fair housing and protected the sacred right to vote. We’ve partnered together to help folks get the skills they need for good-paying, middle class jobs.”

“Most of all,” Biden’s statement continues, “Tom knows how to talk to people, not down to them. He knows how to explain why our party’s core beliefs matter to the immigrant family in Arizona and the coal miner in West Virginia. That matters.”

Here is Joe Biden’s statement endorsing Tom Perez for DNC Chair. Major boost for Perez. pic.twitter.com/f5PF4aNL4V

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 1, 2017

Perez called Biden “a personal hero of mine” in his own statement. He said the former vice president understood the party’s grassroots “and knows the urgency of increasing local investment to get our party winning again.”

Perez’s primary competition for the chairmanship, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), has received more endorsements from political heavyweights, including the party’s liberal wing. He counts current and former Senate Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Harry Reid, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) among his backers.