Biden wins endorsement from prominent Texas Latina lawmaker

The former vice president now boasts six supporters from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas endorsed Joe Biden on Wednesday, giving the former vice president his sixth supporter from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Garcia, who served as one of the House’s seven impeachment managers during the Senate’s trial last month, represents a majority-Hispanic district that covers parts of Houston.

A bilingual freshman, Garcia said she will be active on Biden’s behalf in the run-up to Super Tuesday March 3. She has spoken to the campaign about going to Nevada and South Carolina ahead of their respective caucuses and primary this month.

“I will go wherever I need to go, whatever day it needs to be, and I will do it in English or Spanish,” Garcia told POLITICO in a phone interview. “I am totally committed to making sure that the vice president becomes president of the United States.”

Her endorsement comes ahead of Wednesday night’s Las Vegas debate and Saturday’s Nevada caucuses. After disappointing finishes in overwhelmingly white Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden’s campaign is expecting a top-two finish in Nevada and a win in South Carolina to give the campaign much-needed momentum heading into Super Tuesday, when billionaire Mike Bloomberg will begin appearing on ballots after skipping the first four states.

Garcia declined to criticize Bloomberg, who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ads, or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the current frontrunner and self-described democratic socialist, instead noting more than once that any Democratic contender would be better than President Donald Trump.

She also downplayed Biden’s dismal finishes in the first two states, pointing out that minority voices like her own won’t have much of a say until Nevada and South Carolina vote.

“Two states does not make a winner. I’m not even sure that three or four states” make a winner, said Garcia, who added that Biden is “absolutely” the best candidate to face Trump in the fall.

“I think if you look at some of the polls nationally that are still showing a one-on-one, he still beats President Trump. There was only one reason to make that call to Ukraine, and it was to smear Joe Biden because the bully knows who can beat him, and that’s Joe Biden,” said Garcia. “That alone told it all. Joe Biden will beat Donald Trump in 2020.”