Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is endorsing Mike Bloomberg for president, giving the former New York City mayor his biggest Texas endorsement yet as early voting is set to begin in just five days.

“We need a president who knows how cities run,” Turner said. “It’s why I’m proud to endorse Mike for president, and I look forward to sending him to Washington in November.”

The endorsement comes as Bloomberg is scheduled to be in Houston on Thursday night to launch a new initiative called Mike for Black America, which is supposed to help address issues important to the black community and boost voter turnout. Bloomberg is announcing that program just after 8 p.m. at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum at 3816 Caroline St.

Earlier, Bloomberg will speak at the Harris County Democratic Party’s annual Johnson, Rayburn Richards Dinner at the Marriott Marquis Houston.

It’s already Bloomberg’s third visit to Houston in the last six weeks. And in each of those visits, he’s been focused on the black community. In his last visit just two weeks ago, Bloomberg was promoting an economic program he plans to launch that he says will create one million more black homeowners and 100,000 new black-owned businesses.

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“As mayor, Mike embraced New York’s diversity and made smart investments that brought better infrastructure and greater opportunity to all five boroughs,” Turner said.

Bloomberg heaped praise back on Turner, a fellow Democrat who just won re-election in December.

“Being a great mayor of a large, diverse city means taking on big challenges that affect millions of people, like infrastructure and climate change, and issues specific to certain groups, like expanding opportunities for young men of color — and Mayor Sylvester Turner has done both amidst the melting pot of cultures in Houston,” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg has been working on getting endorsements from mayors and former mayors. He’s previously announced endorsements from San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Bloomberg got into the presidential race in November, more than six months after the other leading contenders. But he’s skipped the traditional early voting states including Iowa and New Hampshire. Instead, he has been spending big in Super Tuesday voting states, including Texas and California as well as more than a dozen other states.

Polling shows Bloomberg has surged over the last two months. A Quinnipiac University Poll released last week showed that 15 percent of national Democratic voters are supporting Bloomberg — just two percentage points behind former Vice President Joe Biden for second place. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was leading that poll with 25 percent.

Bloomberg’s gains in the black community have been a big reason for the jump. His support among black voters jumped to 22 percent in that Quinnipiac Poll. In December, only 4 percent of black voters were supporting him.

Biden, vice president under President Barack Obama, was an early leader in the race and has won endorsements from key Texas Democrats in Congress: U.S. Reps Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen; Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas; Colin Allred, D-Dallas; Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth; and Filemon Vela Jr., D-Brownsville.

Bloomberg’s visit comes at a time other campaigns are also ramping up activities in Houston and in Texas. Sanders's campaign is scheduled to open a new office in Houston on Thursday night, and Sanders himself will hold a rally in Mesquite in North Texas on Friday night. California billionaire Tom Steyer is opening his first Texas office in Houston, on Thursday morning as well.