Biden picks up key Iowa endorsement
Joe Biden landed a coveted Iowa endorsement on Thursday, winning the backing of Rep. Abby Finkenauer, one of the youngest women ever elected to Congress and the first in the Iowa congressional delegation to endorse in the 2020 race.
A stamp of approval from the 31-year-old Finkenauer comes at a pivotal time for the 77-year-old former vice president, as he seeks to dispel the notion that he’s too old to win support from younger voters. It also comes from a congresswoman who flipped a competitive district in 2018 that voted twice for Barack Obama and then for Donald Trump in 2016.
“We need a President who reflects those same values and will make America’s working families their top priority. Joe Biden’s character, record, and commitment to rebuilding the backbone of the country — the middle class — is what Iowa and this country needs,” Finkenauer said in a statement.
Finkenauer, who wrested control of the northeastern Iowa seat from Republican Rod Blum in the 2018 midterms, will campaign with Biden during a five-day Iowa tour that begins Thursday.
Finkenauer has had ties to Biden long before the 2020 Democratic primary. She volunteered on Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign, and in the race against Blum, Biden hosted a rally for Finkenauer that drew 2,000 people.
The congresswoman’s endorsement comes after two influential Iowa Democrats — Tom Vilsack, a former governor and onetime U.S. secretary of Agriculture, and his wife, Christie — endorsed Biden in late November and joined him at a series of events in rural Iowa last month.
