*Two African American mayors disputed Tuesday the claim by Hillary Clinton’s campaign they endorsed her presidential run, with one saying he would’ve endorsed Joe Biden instead.
According to CNN, the mayors of San Antonio, Texas, and Wilmington, Delaware, were both included in a campaign-provided list of 50 African-American mayors who were supposedly endorsing the democrat. The list, which was mostly made up of South Carolina mayors, was distributed on Tuesday morning.
But shortly after the list went out, Mayor Ivy R. Taylor of San Antonio asked to be removed.
“The mayor of San Antonio is a non-partisan elected office and Mayor Taylor is committed to remaining non-partisan in the upcoming presidential election,” Leslie Ann Garza, spokeswoman for Taylor, said in a statement that was first reported by The New York Times. “Mayor Taylor will not be making an endorsement or supporting any candidate.”
Clinton met with Ivy in between her two events in San Antonio last week and, according to a Clinton aide, the mayor expressed her support and said she wanted to be helpful. Garza said that is not accurate and that the mayor “will not be helping with any presidential campaigns.”
The Clinton aide said there was a “miscommunication about what that support could mean” but that Ivy has been removed from the list.
A spokesman for Mayor Dennis Williams of Wilmington also said he has not yet endorsed Clinton, and would have backed Joe Biden if the vice president had entered the race. Biden announced Wednesday he would not seek the Democratic nomination.
“Mayor Williams has yet to publicly endorse any of the current presidential candidates,” Alexandra Coppadge, a spokesman for Williams, told CNN.
The same Clinton aide said that their campaign had been talking with the mayor’s office over the course of the summer about a possible endorsement. Three weeks ago, according to the aide, the mayor’s office said that they were willing to be publicly supportive of Clinton.
But hours after the list went public Tuesday the mayor’s office asked for the name to be removed.
The Clinton campaign list also included endorsements from Mayor Steve Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina; Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, Missouri; Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and Mayor Kasim Reed of Atlanta.
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