Jerry Brown said Tuesday he will vote for Hillary Clinton in the states upcoming primary, explaining that she has the best chance of thwarting the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
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Brown, who served two terms as the state’s governor from 1975-1983 before serving his third and fourth since 2011, lauded Clinton as having “the only path forward to win the presidency and stop the risky candidacy of Donald Trump”.
The endorsement by Brown, who is respected by progressives and popular in the state, is a valuable asset for Clinton one week before the delegate-rich Democratic primary there, in which both candidates are going for broke.
He said that with Clinton’s long experience, especially as secretary of state, she has a firm grasp of the issues and will be prepared to lead on day one. She provides, Brown states in blunt language, “the only path forward to win the presidency and stop the unsafe candidacy of Donald Trump”.
So far, Sanders has offered mixed and sometimes nuanced response as to what would be his next step after the crucial Democratic California primary on June 7, when 475 pledged delegates will be up for grabs.
Clinton has effectively already won, and it is time to focus on defeating Trump, Brown wrote.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher”.
She will cancel an event in New Jersey, Welker reported, in order to get back to California sooner than initially planned for a five-day campaign swing.
Clinton’s campaign emailed a copy of the letter to reporters without comment Tuesday.
In his statement, Brown said he was “deeply impressed” with the campaign Sanders has run, comparing it his own run for the White House in 1992.
Brown goes on to detail the mathematical lead Clinton holds over Sanders, which the California governor characterizes as “insurmountable” for the Vermont senator. Just this past week, Clinton took heat in a report released by U.S. Inspector General that sharply criticized her handling of personal and profession email during her time as secretary of state. When Brown ran for governor in 2010, nearly thirty years after he served two terms as governor in Sacramento, he had the backing of the Clintons.
At the party’s 1992 national convention in New York, Brown supporters roamed Madison Square Garden with tape over their mouths, protesting what they said was the muzzling of their candidate by party leaders.
Brown, a devoted environmentalist, was once mocked as “Governor Moonbeam” during the 1970s, in part for a quirky personality and progressive agenda that, like Sanders, attracted young, idealistic voters. The risk posed by Donald Trump is too great – Brown cites climate change, nuclear weapons, and the Supreme Court – and Democrats need to unite now. Jerry Brown announced today in an open letter to California voters.
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The poll shows Clinton four percentage points ahead of Trump, but Murray said 15 percent of registered voters are still undecided.
