Rep. Barbara Lee is set to formally begin a campaign for chairperson of the House Democratic Caucus, Politico reported Monday.
A win by Lee would make the California Democrat the first African-American woman to hold a leadership role in either party, the report noted.
“When you look at the history of the Democratic Party and the Democratic leadership, African-American women … we’ve been the backbone of the Democratic Party—we should be in the face of leadership also,” Lee said in a Sunday interview with Politico.
Issues that concern poor urban and rural voters are “issues that we can all unify around,” Lee said.
“The strength of our caucus lies in our diversity of experiences and ideas,” Lee said in a letter to be released Monday, Politico reported.
“Whether it’s working across the aisle to enact HIV/AIDS laws, or bringing the (Bernie) Sanders and (Hillary) Clinton campaigns together behind a cohesive and progressive Democratic platform, my career has been dedicated to finding common ground and delivering results,” Lee said in the letter, Politico reported.
The Democratic leadership post is now up for grabs after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Rep. Joe Crowley of New York in a June primary.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke favorably about Lee, when saying she was not inclined to support Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for speaker of the House. “Is Barbara Lee available?” Ocasio-Cortez asked, The Washington Post reported in June.
The congresswoman became known nationally as the only vote in the House of Representatives to oppose the authorization of the use of force after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Politico noted.
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