Bernie Sanders’ campaign is featuring Erica Garner, the daughter of the man who died after a police chokehold on Staten Island two years ago, in a new television ad in New York.
Titled “Erica,” the spot is a 30-second version of a four-minute video that the Vermont senator unveiled two months ago, his campaign said.
“I got to see my dad die on national TV. They don’t know what they took from us. People are dying. We need a president that’s going to talk about it,” Erica Garner says in the ad. “I believe Bernie Sanders is a protester. He’s not scared to go up against the criminal justice system. He’s not scared — that’s why I’m for Bernie.”
The original four-minute version had appeared as a web ad. But it’s the first time Sanders’ campaign has put a 30-second version of the video on the television airwaves. The campaign did, however, put a two-minute version on the air in South Carolina.
It comes just two weeks ahead of New York’s April 19 primary, where Sanders is hoping to upset Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, whose campaign is now planning to spend more time and resources to lock down the state Clinton had represented in the Senate than originally planned.
Erica Garner endorsed Sanders in January, about a week after Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, endorsed Clinton.
