Rep. Tom Malinowski endorsed Joe Biden, raising the number of vulnerable congressional Democrats backing the former vice president’s White House bid to more than half a dozen.
Malinowski and the other Democrats have latched onto Biden in a bid to avoid being swept from their battleground districts by President Trump this year. Trump lost Malinowski’s suburban, Northern New Jersey district by just 1.1 percentage points in 2016. The endangered Democrats are concerned that a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren candidacy would sink their reelection in competitive seats won or lost narrowly by Trump.
“Joe Biden will run the campaign we need to win in November,” Malinowski told the New Jersey Globe in an article published Tuesday.
Malinowski, 54, endorsed Biden after his first choice, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, dropped his presidential bid amid flagging support. His move to Biden makes him the fifth Democrat elected in a Republican-leaning district in 2018 to back the 77-year-old former vice president. Like the four others, Malinowski is a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “frontline” program for vulnerable Democrats.
Other “frontline” Democrats coalescing behind Biden include Reps. Abby Finkenauer of Iowa; Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania; Elaine Luria of Virginia; and Colin Allred of Texas. Also endorsing the ex-vice president are embattled Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, perhaps the most pro-Trump state, and Rep. Sean Maloney, a member of Congress since 2013, who holds a district that fell to Trump in the last presidential election.
