Hillary Clinton tweets endorsement of Mark Begich for Alaska governor

Hillary Clinton today tweeted her support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Begich.

“(Mark Begich) is a dedicated public servant, business owner, and former U.S. senator who has a record of cutting through bureaucracy to get things done for Alaskans,” she wrote. “In office, he’ll prioritize schools, jobs, and affordable health care.”

The 2016 presidential candidate tweeted the endorsement as part of a series of gubernatorial endorsements that included shout-outs to Democratic candidates in Arizona, New Hampshire, Maine and Michigan.

.@MarkBegich is a dedicated public servant, business owner, and former U.S. senator who has a record of cutting through bureaucracy to get things done for Alaskans. In office, he’ll prioritize schools, jobs, and affordable health care. https://t.co/U4UXFaQFum

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 29, 2018

She stressed the importance of this year’s gubernatorial elections for protecting states against Trump’s federal government.

“Governors set the tone and direction for their states. They’re also our last line of defense against some of the Trump administration’s worst policies,” she wrote.

Begich took a similar line after Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the office of Alaska governor is the only way to defend against the changes made by a conservative court.

Clinton won 36.5 percent of Alaska’s vote in 2016 (where Trump got 51.2 percent of the vote). Bernie Sanders handily won Alaska’s Democratic caucuses with 79.6 percent of the popular vote, netting 13 of the state’s 16 delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Republican Mike Dunleavy got endorsements from Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation as well as the Twitter endorsement of President Donald Trump last week.