Oklahoma City Rep. Ajay Pittman Endorses Biden

Oklahoma City State Rep. Ajay Pittman (D) announced she will be endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Her endorsement also comes on the first day of early voting.

“I am proud to endorse Joe Biden. He has a history of fighting for working and middle-class Americans, and I know that’s exactly what he will do as President,” Pittman said in a release from the Biden campaign Wednesday morning. “From working with President Obama to pass the Affordable Care Act to writing and passing the Violence Against Women Act, Joe Biden has never given up on something he knows is right. That’s exactly the type of fight we need in our next President,”

Pittman, a member of legislature’s black caucus, is the first endorsement for the former Vice President and one that comes from a key demographic vote when it comes to carrying Oklahoma in a democratic primary. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC-news poll, Biden’s support among black voters has dropped from 48 percent to 31 percent nationally.

"Vice President Joe Biden has been able to build the type of broad and diverse coalition that we know is essential to beating Donald Trump - and that includes in Oklahoma,” Biden Senior Advisor Symone Sanders said in the same release.

One of the state’s only millennial members, Pittman is also a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma representing some of the state’s wealthiest neighborhoods. In a new News9/SoonerPoll poll, Biden far and away carried the millennial vote with 43.8 percent. Biden and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg were in a statistical tie for the lead among Democratic voters.