Bill Clinton’s former Labor secretary has thrown his support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
Robert Reich served at the head of the Labor Department from 1993 through 1997. He’s chairman of liberal advocacy group Common Cause and a professor at UC Berkeley.
Reich endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008 and was highly critical of how the Clintons treated Obama in Hillary’s first stab at the White House.
Today, Reich wrote on Twitter that he has “the deepest respect and admiration for Hillary Clinton, and if she wins the Democratic primary I’ll work my heart out to help her become president.”
“But I believe Bernie Sanders is the agent of change this nation so desperately need,” he declared.
Reich hailed Sanders for “leading a movement to reclaim America for the many, not the few.”
“And such a political mobilization – a ‘political revolution,’ as he puts it — is the only means by which we can get the nation back from the moneyed interests that now control so much of our economy and democracy,” he said.
“This extraordinary concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the very top imperils all else – our economy, our democracy, the revival of the American middle class, the prospects for the poor and for people of color, the necessity of slowing and reversing climate change, and a sensible foreign policy not influenced by the ‘military-industrial complex,’ as President Dwight Eisenhower once called it. It is the fundamental prerequisite: We have little hope of achieving positive change on any front unless the American people are once again in control.”
Sanders welcomed the endorsement and praised Reich as “one of the most effective secretaries of labor in modern American history.”
“He is one of the foremost economic thinkers in this country focusing on income inequality and the needs of working people,” Sanders said. “In 2002, he ran a great campaign for governor of Massachusetts. I am proud and delighted to have the support of Robert Reich.”
Sanders, who faces a tough primary Saturday in South Carolina, will spend the day campaigning in Texas.
On Sunday, the senator heads to Colorado to campaign in preparation for Super Tuesday.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member