Middletown leaders endorse U.S. Sen. Sanders for president

Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Photo Photo: Hearst Connecticut Media File Photo Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Middletown leaders endorse U.S. Sen. Sanders for president 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

MIDDLETOWN — Several Democratic elected officials, including the mayor, have endorsed U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, for the upcoming 2020 presidential primary.

Mayor Ben Florsheim, Deputy Mayor Vinnie Loffredo, common councilors Darnell Ford and Ed McKeon, Board of Education member Lisa Loomis and Planning and Zoning Commissioner Kellin Atherton will host a Middletown for Bernie event Monday, according to a press release.

The Iowa caucus results watch party will be held at La Boca Mexican restaurant, 337 Main St., starting at 6:30 p.m. The event will serve as an opportunity for community members to engage with CT for Bernie organizing and sign up to get involved, the release said.

In addition, the following Democratic Town Committee members are also backing Sanders for president: Brandon Chafee, treasurer; and Bobbye Knoll Peterson, Stephen Magro, Diana Martinez, Will Arther, Alec Ramsay-Smith and Paul Zakarian.

Florsheim said he is proud to endorse Sanders.

“We are facing some of the most significant challenges in our country’s history. Climate change. A student debt crisis. A president who empowers hate. An economic system where, in the richest country in the world, people are dying because they can’t afford things like housing and health care, Florsheim said in a prepared statement.

“It is critical that we meet this moment not with politics as usual, but with a lasting, organized push for real change. We need to elect a movement — not just a president. Bernie is the person who can lead that movement into power, so we can defeat Donald Trump, confront our toughest challenges, and achieve our highest goals,” he added.

“I’m not just proud to support Bernie Sanders for president — I’m inspired,” Loffredo said in the statement. “We are at a pivotal moment in history where we can succumb to crisis and greed, or where we can build the world our children and children’s children deserve. From Medicare for All, to the Green New Deal, to the Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education,”

Bernie is the only candidate with an agenda that meets the scale of the challenges we face,” Lofreddo said.

Ford said the senator will “fight for the working middle class, protect labor unions, and create policies that support people.”

Ramsey-Smith’s mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. “I saw firsthand how our broken health-care system profits off of people at their most vulnerable and leaves them deeply in debt or without access to quality care.”