LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is endorsing Joe Biden for president.
Reids in a statement Monday said that Biden is the Democratic candidate with the best chance of beating President Donald Trump in November.
The move comes as part of a wave of establishment support flows to the former vice president heading into the Super Tuesday primaries.
The former Nevada senator says Biden's "strength of character and deep experience stand in the starkest contrast to Trump's amorality, corruption and utter incompetence."
"Biden will be a much-needed stabilizing force following Trump's disastrous term, offering a positive and progressive alternative to Trump's dark vision of racism, xenophobia and policies built on cruelty and exclusion," he said.
He expressed his respect for several of the other candidates still in the race, including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Reid notably held back his endorsement ahead of the Nevada caucuses last month. Sanders won Nevada by a wide margin, but Biden came in second place. Biden won the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
Reid, who at 80 remains one of the most powerful Democrats in the state, predicted just days before Nevada's caucus that Sanders' signature health care policy, "Medicare for All," could not win support in Congress. Yet he said at that time he thought the fiery Vermont senator could bring Democrats together.
"I have no doubt that if Bernie Sanders is the nominee, the party will unite behind him and beat Trump," Reid said.