Ex-Warren staffers endorse Sanders

Fifty former staffers for Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) presidential campaign endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) White House bid in an open letter on Tuesday, calling him “the best option for Warren Democrats right now.”

“We, the undersigned former employees and fellows of Warren for President, are ready to get back in the fight for a just and progressive future. We know that we need a bold, ambitious policy agenda for working families, marginalized communities, and our planet,” said the signers, led by regional organizing director Alicia Nichols-Gonzalez and field organizer Michael Barth.

“We know that we won’t beat Donald Trump by simply talking about a return to business as usual. We hold these values close to our hearts because we’ve spent months talking about them with community members and volunteers in the field on behalf of Elizabeth Warren,” they added.

“That’s why the best option for Warren Democrats right now is to support Bernie Sanders for President, in addition to fighting for Democratic victories across the board in Senate, House, and local races,” the letter said.

The signers describe their goals as consolidating those prepared to transition from supporting Warren to supporting Sanders and building “a community to facilitate the transition” as well as reaching out to other former Warren backers who are not yet prepared to support Sanders.

The letter follows endorsements by two groups with ties to Warren on Monday, the Working Families Party, which previously endorsed the Massachusetts senator, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which had called on Michigan voters to strategically vote for Sanders in the state’s Tuesday primary.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, however, captured Michigan as well as at least Mississippi and Missouri in Tuesday’s contests. Biden has considerable momentum following his victories on Super Tuesday and is building a delegate lead it looks increasingly unlikely that Sanders will be able to overcome.