Harris Scores Major Endorsement from Iowa Power Couple

(Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris scored a major Iowa endorsement Saturday morning from an influential couple in state politics that could help boost the California senator’s campaign in the state that holds first contest of the nomination race.

Former Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky and her husband Bob, an ex-state senator, endorsed Harris and plan to join her campaign’s bus tour across the state.

“We’ve listened. We’ve read. We’ve attended. We believe with many of our friends and neighbors that we must get this right. And we are supporting Kamala Harris for president of the United States,” the Dvorskys said in a statement. “In her experience, in her beliefs, in her vision, and in her plans, Kamala sets forth her theory of the case, and how she will prosecute the case.”

Endorsements can carry more weight in Iowa than in other states because the caucus system gives an edge to the candidate with the strongest local connections. Some prominent Iowa Democrats have shied away from making endorsements at this point to avoid the risk of signing up with someone who’ll quickly vanish from the race or snubbing a potential caucus winner.

Sue Dvorsky, who ran the state party from 2010 to 2012, said she and her husband have never before waited this long to endorse a candidate, a delay that in part resulted from a massive field of more than 20 candidates.

On Friday night, the Dvorskys were honored at the Wing Ding, a fundraiser for local Democrats that featured the majority of the Democratic candidates for president, including Harris and front-runner Joe Biden.

The Dvorskys were early backers of Barack Obama in 2007, and Sue Dvorsky served as Hillary Clinton’s women’s engagement director for Iowa in 2016.

In a Monmouth University poll released Thursday, Harris came in third with support from 11% of Democrats, trailing Biden who had 28% and Elizabeth Warren with 19%.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tyler Pager in Washington at tpager1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Joe Sobczyk, Virginia Van Natta

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