On Friday, Bernie Sanders’ campaign announced it had won the endorsement of a major grassroots group in Detroit, as well as the City Council’s president pro tempore.
Detroit Action, a grassroots organization that fights for the equality of black and brown Michiganders, announced its endorsement of Sanders, noting his record of standing in solidarity with working class communities of color.
“The most important action that we can take right now, is doing whatever it takes to ensure that we elect someone with whom we can truly work to dismantle this oppressive administration,” the group’s executive director Branden Snyder said.
“We believe that a vote for Senator Sanders is a strategic intervention into the Democratic primary system and against neoliberal economic policy and the political status quo that candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden represent.”
Sanders also won the endorsement of Mary Sheffield, the president pro tempore of the Detroit City Council.
“I am enthusiastically supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders for president of the United States because he represents the best chance for a paradigm shift in how the government represents all the people of our great nation,” Sheffield said on Friday.
“From treating healthcare and access to clean safe drinking water as a human right, to ensuring that billionaires pay their fair share, to his plan for education that gives low-income families greater access to opportunities, Sen. Sanders is the best hope for a better and more morally responsible America.”
In 2013, Sheffield became the youngest person ever elected to the Detroit City Council, and was later selected as the president pro tempore by her colleagues after being elected for a second term.
Sanders has also welcomed endorsements in Michigan from Representative Rashida Tlaib, the Young Democrats of Michigan and the Progressive Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party.
Michigan is one of six states to vote on Tuesday 10 March.