CEDAR RAPIDS — Fourteen months ago, former Vice President Joe Biden came to Cedar Rapids to endorse Abby Finkenauer’s bid to be Iowa’s first woman in Congress.

Today, the freshman U.S. representative returned the favor, endorsing Biden’s bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. She called him the candidate whose “character, record and commitment to rebuilding the backbone of the country — the middle class — is what Iowa and this country needs.”

Finkenauer is the only one of Iowa’s three Democratic House members to endorse a candidate. A former Iowa state representative, labor advocate and volunteer in Biden’s 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination, Finkenauer is backing him because “across the country, and especially in Iowa, too many families are being left behind by our current president.”

“It’s time we have leadership in the White House who believes in the value of not only uniting a divided Congress, but uniting our country through common sense, dignity, and respect,” Finkenauer said. As she grew up in rural Dubuque County, her family instilled in her “the importance of hard work, caring for others and, most importantly, the value of public service.”

“We need a president who reflects those same values and will make America’s working families their top priority,” she said.

Finkenauer will join Biden at campaign stops in Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Des Moines and Davenport. Today, Biden will have a 1:30 p.m. rally at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa.

Then he will be at the Delaware County Fairgrounds Community Center in Manchester at 4:45 p.m.

Friday, he will join campaign staff for a canvass and phone bank kickoff at 3:15 p.m.at his Cedar Rapids field office, 3621 First Ave. SE. Doors open 30 minutes ahead of all events.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT

Finkenauer hosted Biden and eight other presidential hopefuls at a forum co-hosted by nine national labor unions. The forum highlighted the importance of labor, jobs and rebuilding Iowa’s infrastructure.

Biden for President previously announced more than 1,000 endorsements — including more than 185 in Iowa — from national, state and local leaders, including current and former U.S. senators and representatives, governors, state elected officials, community leaders and national security professionals.

Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com