Bernie Sanders snags his first congressional backer

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 7 October 2015

Up until this point in the election, long-shot candidate Martin O'Malley had more congressional backers than Bernie Sanders — and O'Malley only has one endorsement. But now, the two are about to be neck-and-neck in terms of congressional support. The Los Angeles Times broke the news Wednesday that one member of Congress is planning to back the Vermont senator in the Democratic presidential race: Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva.

Despite the fact that Sanders has overtaken Hillary Clinton in polls of New Hampshire, this is Sanders' first endorsement from a sitting member of Congress. Still, Sanders has a long, long way to go before he could take the lead over Hillary in congressional support: FiveThirtyEight's endorsement tracker reports that Clinton is backed by "over 150 sitting senators, representatives, and governors."