Joe Biden endorses Jackie Gordon in 2nd C.D.

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Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, endorsed Democrat Jackie Gordon on Monday in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Peter King in New York’s 2nd Congressional District. Gordon is a former Babylon town councilwoman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a school guidance counselor.

“I am proud to endorse Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jackie Gordon for Congress to represent New York’s Second Congressional District,” Biden said in a statement released on Monday. “Jackie has served her community as a military police officer and an educator and will continue that service in Washington. I know Jackie will fight hard for Long Island’s working families and make their voices heard in Congress.”

Biden joins his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama and Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York in the latest of a series of high-profile political endorsements the Gordon campaign has announced throughout the year.

Gordon is in a tight congressional race against Republican State Assemblyman Andrew Garbarino, who has secured many of his own endorsements, including that of King, a Seaford Republican who has represented the South Shore in the House of Representatives since 1993.

“I am honored to receive the endorsement of Vice-President Biden and to appear alongside him on the ballot this November,” Gordon said in a statement on Monday. “As a combat veteran and fellow Blue Star parent, I look forward to calling Vice-President Biden our Commander in Chief and working with him in Washington to protect our troops, serve our veterans, and deliver for the people of Long Island’s South Shore.”

Gordon recently received the support of a number of organizations with a history of bipartisan endorsements in her district. They include the Teamsters Local 237 and Sheet Metal Workers Local 28 — which have in the past endorsed King — and the New York chapter of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the U.S. This is the first time the AFL-CIO has made an endorsement in the 2nd District  in over a decade.

“Every first Monday in September we celebrate the contributions of the labor movement to the economic advancement and social welfare of our country,” Gordon said just after Labor Day. “We owe a great debt to the American laborers who have organized and sacrificed to build an economy that serves working people by advocating for safe working conditions, paid time off, and retirement security.”

Other labor organizations that have endorsed Gordon include the New York State Nurses Association, New York State United Teachers — of which Gordon has been a member for three decades — the Service Employees International Union Local 1199, the New York State Council of Machinists, the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen.