Iowa's Tom Harkin endorses Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton picked up a key Democratic endorsement in Iowa late Thursday night: former Sen. Tom Harkin and his wife, Ruth.

Harkin, who served 30 years in the Senate before retiring in January, said in an op-ed published by The Des Moines Register that the former secretary of state and first lady shares his values on social and economic justice.


“It was over a year ago that I said that though I was retiring from the Senate, I would not be retiring from the fight for social and economic justice. That is why today I am proud to endorse my longtime friend and colleague, Hillary Clinton, in her candidacy for president of the United States. I know that she will keep fighting until the opportunities that seemed like an impossibility to a boy from Cumming, Iowa, can be lived by every child in this country,” the 75-year-old former senator wrote.

The endorsement comes as independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont continues to rise in Hawkeye State polls and Clinton faces new scrutiny over a private email server, which she agreed to hand over this week to the FBI along with thumb drives containing emails from her time at the State Department.

A recent CNN/ORC poll of likely Democratic caucus-goers has Clinton leading Sanders 50 percent to 31 percent, but with many Iowans still undecided.

Clinton, who placed third in the Iowa caucuses in 2008, appeared at Harkin’s final Steak Fry event in September 2014, though the Iowa senator made clear that her appearance was not a presidential endorsement per se.

The endorsement comes relatively early in the cycle for Harkin, who did not endorse a candidate in 2008. During the 2004 campaign, he did not endorse former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean until nine days before the January caucuses, and he endorsed Bill Clinton in March 1992, the same month he dropped his own presidential bid.

Clinton will speak Friday at Iowa’s Wing Ding fundraising dinner in Clear Lake, followed by an appearance Saturday at Iowa’s State Fair in Des Moines, traditionally a must-go event for aspiring presidents.