Rep. Ted Lieu (D., Calif.) gave Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) her first congressional endorsement Monday, ahead of her CNN Iowa presidential town hall.
Harris announced last Monday she would run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 and on Sunday delivered a speech to a large crowd at a rally in Oakland, California.
In a Monday morning tweet, Lieu threw his support behind the fellow Californian. In it, he describes her as the right person to "move America forward."
I endorse @KamalaHarris for President.
Known Kamala for many years & worked together on various issues. She embraces the future, not the past, and is the person we need to move America forward.
Watch the #HarrisTownHall tonight at 7 pm PT / 10 pm ET to learn more about Kamala. https://t.co/P4ywl9U3Op
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 28, 2019
After she announced, former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown wrote an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle defending his affair with Harris. The two dated for several years in the 1990s, when when she was beginning her California career. Brown was estranged from his wife at the time.
"Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker," Brown wrote. "And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco." Harris was in her late twenties at the time.
Harris has tried to distance herself from the affair. During her 2003 district attorney race, she lamented that Brown had become an "albatross hanging around my neck." Brown is thirty years her senior.
Lieu is the first member of Congress to endorse Harris but not the first endorsement from a lawmaker. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D., Tex.) endorsed his brother Julián Castro, who is also running for the Democratic nomination.
Lieu explained his support for Harris, saying she "embraces the future, not the past." He also pointed to the past to justify his endorsement, saying he had "[k]nown Kamala for many years & worked together on various issues."
As of Monday morning, her website had no policy positions.
Harris will be participating in a CNN town hall Monday night with Jake Tapper, her first official pitch to Iowa's Democratic voters.