Vice President Joe Biden endorses Manka Dhingra for the Washington State Senate

Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Sen­ate hope­ful Man­ka Dhin­gra has picked up the endorse­ment of Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, her cam­paign announced this afternoon.

“I am proud to endorse Man­ka Dhin­gra to rep­re­sent the East­side in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate,” said Biden in a state­ment. “Man­ka is an expe­ri­enced pros­e­cu­tor who has ded­i­cat­ed her life to strength­en­ing her com­mu­ni­ty. I espe­cial­ly appre­ci­ate her efforts to reduce domes­tic vio­lence and sex­u­al assault, pro­tect vic­tims of crime, and advo­cate for improved men­tal health pro­grams. If elect­ed, she’ll break the grid­lock on issues like gun respon­si­bil­i­ty, wom­en’s rights, and edu­ca­tion fund­ing. She will help solve real prob­lems for Wash­ing­ton’s mid­dle class families.”

Biden served with dis­tinc­tion and hon­or as Vice Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States from Jan­u­ary 2009 until Jan­u­ary 2017. Pre­vi­ous­ly, he rep­re­sent­ed Delaware for decades in the Unit­ed States Sen­ate. Biden received the enthu­si­as­tic sup­port of vot­ers across the East­side in 2008 and 2012 when he and Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma were the Demo­c­ra­t­ic nom­i­nees for the high­est offices in the land.

“I deeply appre­ci­ate Vice Pres­i­dent Biden’s endorse­ment,” said Dhin­gra. “Like him, I’m com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that every child has an equal oppor­tu­ni­ty to suc­ceed, that every­one is respect­ed and val­ued before the law whether they are a woman, LGBTQ+ or an immi­grant, and that every mid­dle class fam­i­ly can afford to live and grow with­out fear of los­ing their health care or their home. Vice Pres­i­dent Biden’s tire­less com­mit­ment to crim­i­nal jus­tice reform and oppos­ing domes­tic vio­lence is inspir­ing and I’ve worked hard on these same issues here in our community.”

Biden was the prin­ci­pal drafter of the land­mark Vio­lence Against Women Act, signed into law by Pres­i­dent Clin­ton in 1994 and reau­tho­rized in 2000, 2005, and 2013.

Biden’s endorse­ment will undoubt­ed­ly help Dhin­gra make her clos­ing pitch to vot­ers. The deputy King Coun­ty pros­e­cu­tor best­ed her Repub­li­can oppo­nent Jiny­oung Lee Englund in the Top Two elec­tion by more than ten points.

In last year’s heat­ed con­test for Sen­ate in the 41st Dis­trict, Demo­c­ra­t­ic stan­dard bear­er Lisa Well­man’s cam­paign received a sim­i­lar boost from Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma, who also endorsed Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti and Kris­tine Reeves in the 30th LD.

Well­man went on to unseat incum­bent Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Steve Lit­zow, while Pel­lic­ciot­ti defeat­ed Lin­da Kochmar and Reeves defeat­ed Teri Hickel.