Sen. Kamala Harris’ campaign reminds him of another candidate he supported in the past: Barack Obama. | Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images 2020 Elections Harris wins endorsement of civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump is endorsing Kamala Harris for president, citing the California senator’s record on criminal justice and comparing her campaign to former President Barack Obama’s historic White House run in 2008.

Crump, a high-profile Florida attorney, represented Trayvon Martin’s family after the teen was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012. He has since represented other families whose children were killed in fatal altercations with white police officers that captured the nation’s attention, like Mike Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Mo., and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.


In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Crump said that while he had gotten calls from multiple campaigns, Harris was the candidate in the top tier who stood out to him.

“When you look up some of the stuff that she’s tried to do working from the inside, you know that she understands the challenges of trying to get progress when there are a lot of powers that be that are pushing against the cause for equal justice,” he said.

Specifically, he referenced Harris’ role as California attorney general in getting the state’s Justice Department to publish criminal justice data and her “Back-on-Track” reentry and anti-recidivism programs.

“Senator Kamala Harris has demonstrated an unbridled commitment to a fair and just criminal justice system from her very first days as district attorney,” Crump said in a statement obtained by POLITICO. “Our work on the outside championing reform relies on people on the inside who will make decisions informed by their cultural experiences and a willingness to listen.”

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Crump’s endorsements follows Harris’ speech at the Omega Psi Phi Leadership Conference over the weekend in Atlantic City, N.J. Crump is a member of the black fraternity Omega Psi Phi and introduced the 2020 presidential candidate as a “trailblazer” who is on a “historic journey” to become “the first woman of color to be president,” Yahoo News reported.

In the phone interview, Crump said his endorsement wasn’t “an easy decision” with “such a rich field.” But he limited his choices to the top tier of leading candidates and was impressed by Harris’ performances on the Senate Judiciary Committee in televised hearings and last month’s debate in Miami.

“I thought she was clearly the best debater on the stage. That played a lot into my psyche,” he said. “And of all the top-tier candidates, her platform with her background spoke loudest to me.”

Crump described his conversations with Harris as “frank” and noted he and Maya Harris, the candidate’s sister and campaign chair, are “good friends.”

“They grew up in a family steeped in civil rights. But yet she has worked on the inside as a prosecutor,” he said of the California senator. “So she has a unique advantage from being able to know what it’s like to be on both sides in these matters, and I think that’s gonna be very important.”

Crump added that Harris “realizes where she can and must go further” on criminal justice issues, such as bail reform and Justice Department consent decrees. But for progressives who are critical of Harris’ record, Crump said they should take a closer look.

“See all the things she did when she was the first black attorney general in the state of California because many of the programs that she instituted were unprecedented in America. That was very beneficial for communities of color,” he said. “And when you look at all the other top-tier candidates, she is by far better on the issues than they have been in the history of their careers when you look at their voting records and their rhetoric. A lot of people did a lot of things for political expediency that are now singing a different tune.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who led in most national polls before Harris and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren surged, “Their voting record is not as good as what Kamala Harris has been espousing in regards to civil rights and social justice,” Crump said.

“I think, at the end of the day, she is gonna be more accountable to our communities of color than they are,” he added. “Based on her life experiences. Based on her lifetime of work of trying to be in the room to advocate for our causes and looking at the different programs she tried to institute when she was the chief law enforcement officer of the largest populated state in America.”

Crump endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and is active in Florida politics. He has donated to Democratic Reps. Frederica Wilson, Al Lawson and Val Demings, former Rep. Kendrick Meek and former Sen. Bill Nelson and supported Andrew Gillum’s bid for governor in 2018.

But Harris’ campaign reminds him of another candidate he supported in the past: Obama, whom critics argued couldn’t be elected president because he was black.

“Kamala is reminding us a lot of Barack Obama in 2007, where you’re just kind of seeing the cream of the crop rise to the top,” he said. “She has that Obamanesque quality, if there’s such a thing. You kinda can sense it a little bit just like it was happening in 2007. In many ways, she is more experienced and just as qualified as Barack Obama was when he embarked upon his historic campaign.”

Crump’s 6-year-old daughter is also a factor. When she asks if a woman — or, more specifically, a black woman — can be president, he likes to point to Harris.

“She’s a black woman and she’s blazing trails to make it very possible for you and all the other little princesses across the country, whether black, white or Hispanic, that yes, you can be president,” Crump recalled telling his daughter. “And it’s gonna happen one day. Sen. Harris, I believe, is just as qualified to become the first woman to be president of the United States as anybody else.”