Abstract

Why Jesse Jr. Backs Dean

The author comments on civil rights activist Jesse Jackson's endorsement of Howard Dean for U.S. president. No single endorsement, save that of next July's party convention, will decide the winner of what remains a remarkably unsettled race for the Democratic presidential nomination. But some endorsements carry more weight than others, which explains why all the major Democratic contenders made plays for the support of Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. It also explains why Jackson's endorsement of Howard Dean, which the Illinois congressman expects to make official in early December in South Carolina, rivals Dean's securing of the Service Employees International Union and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union endorsements as a campaign coup. Jackson gives Dean needed street cred not just among African-American voters but also among the broader pool of progressive voters who have come to respect the 38-year-old son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson as a principled and persistent champion of peace and economic and social justice in Congress, and a fierce battler against those who would pull the Democratic Party to the right. The surface assumption is that the greatest assist Jackson can offer will be among African-American voters. Jackson, who says he was drawn to Dean initially because of the candidate's strong opposition to the Iraq war, began talking with Dean after his brother Jonathan, a Chicago businessman, endorsed Dean earlier this year. Jackson is dismissive of Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and Dick Gephardt, all of whom voted to authorize the Iraq war.