The eldest daughter of Eric Garner says Bernie Sanders is the presidential candidate who will prioritize issues of racial justice.
Erica Garner threw her support behind Sanders for president Friday in an endorsement op-ed written for the Washington Post. Her father’s death due to a police chokehold became a lighting rod for Black Lives Matter and protests calling for police accountability and reform.
Erica has led such protests, herself. She writes that Sanders is black America’s “strongest ally,” and compares his campaign’s message to President Barack Obama’s in 2008.
We aren’t the first generation of black Americans to rise up and demand our human right to life, and we won’t be the last. But I know a better world is possible. I know that once we come together, we are powerful beyond imagination. Sen. Sanders knows this too. He’s learning from us, working with us and respecting the power of we, the people, over the established political machine.
Erica writes that Sanders will address the “criminalization” of African-Americans and his record proves it. Additionally, she writes that Sanders “understands our deaths as tragedies – not political talking points.”
Read Garner’s full endorsement of Sanders here