Warren Gets Endorsement From Prominent Iowa Political Couple

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday locked in a major endorsement from an influential couple in Iowa politics three days before the caucuses.

Former Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky and her husband, former state Senator Bob Dvorsky, announced they were endorsing Warren for president in a statement to the Des Moines Register.

“This woman has integrity. She has grit. And she has a plan,” Sue Dvorsky said in the statement. ”And she’s solutions-oriented.”

The Dvorskys had previously endorsed Senator Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the race in December. The couple decided to publicly back Warren after a month of discussions. They received a personal call from Warren on Thursday during a break in the impeachment trial, the Des Moines Register reported.

The endorsement helps Warren’s pitch as the unity candidate. The couple join a list of about 22 Iowans who had formally endorsed other presidential candidates but then backed Warren after their initial picks dropped out.

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. 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.

Warren, who was the front-runner in Iowa in the fall, is now locked in a tight race with other top-tier candidates for the winning ticket out of Iowa. In a Monmouth University poll released Wednesday, Warren was fourth with support from 15% of Democrats, trailing Sanders who had 23%, Joe Biden with 21% and Pete Buttigieg with 15%.

(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Des Moines at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Magan Crane

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