Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders received his first endorsement from a member of Congress on Wednesday, with word that veteran Arizona Democrat Raul Grijalva would back the Vermont senator.

Grijalva, a seven-term congressman from Tucson, is one of the leading progressives on Capitol Hill and the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee.

In an interview with the Guardian, Grijalva said that he didn’t make his endorsement for political reasons, even though it comes on the eve of the first Democratic debate and deadline for Joe Biden to make a final decision about mounting a campaign. Instead, he said that he felt strongly that “if I am going to make a commitment to [Sanders’] message that I do it prior to those other things”. Grijalva insisted “this is not contrived and I don’t want it to appear that way”.

The Arizona Democrat said what attracted him to Sanders was the Vermont senator’s consistency throughout the years. “People might or might not like what he has to say,” said Grijalva, “but the fact is he has said it repeatedly with people and it’s resonating with people, and I think his message is something that I wanted to reinforce.” Grijalva also pointed out he liked that fact that Sanders has “not been disparaging about his opponents ... I think that’s a winning race. Your ideas versus theirs”.

Grijalva, who is the first vice chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, also pushed back at concerns that Sanders has not done enough for the Hispanic community. In particular, Luis Gutiérrez, a Democratic congressman from Illinois who supports Hillary Clinton, said in June of Sanders: “I don’t know if he likes immigrants because he doesn’t seem to talk about immigrants.”

Grijalva noted that Sanders, who comes from the relatively homogenous state of Vermont, “has been very inclusive in how he votes”. In particular, Grijalva thought Sanders’ message would “resonate particularly around issues of opportunity” with Latinos on education, job creation and immigration. By the time all the votes are counted, Grijalva is confident “we are going to do much better than people give us credit for” in minority communities.



In the meantime, Grijalva expressed his willingness to go on the campaign trail wherever the Sanders campaign needs him to speak about environmental issues, Native American issues, Latinos or anything else under the sun from now until the end of the election.

“I am in it with Bernie for the long haul,” said Grijalva. “And if part of that includes some historic day when a guy who looks like an English lit professor whose class I dropped in college is standing up to get sworn in, that’ll be a special day.”