Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has finally nabbed his first endorsement from one of his Senate colleagues. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), writing in the New York Times, said that he feels as though Sanders is the only candidate who is addressing the "biggest challenges" facing the country; namely, the state of the American worker and the environment.
He has opposed trade deals with nations that pay their workers as little as a dollar an hour. Such deals have caused good jobs to move overseas and undermined the leverage of American workers to bargain for a fair share of the wealth they create in our remaining factories.
He has passionately advocated for pivoting from fossil fuels to renewable energy to save our planet from global warming — the greatest threat facing humanity. He recognizes that to accomplish this we must keep the vast bulk of the world’s fossil fuels in the ground.
Bernie is a determined leader in taking on the concentration of campaign cash from the mega-wealthy that is corrupting the vision of opportunity embedded in our Constitution.
Merkley, however, is a realist and recognizes that Sanders will not have an easy path to securing the nomination. This being said, he's still going to throw his support behind the Vermont senator.
While this is Sanders' first endorsement by a current member of the U.S. Senate, he has also been endorsed by former Sens. Paul Kirk (D-MA) and Don Riegle (D-MI).