A key local legislator is putting his support behind Joe Biden in the Democratic primary.
In a statement, Sen. Paul Lowe says the country is more divided than at any time since the Civil War. Biden, he says, has the leadership to bring all Americans together.
Lowe is a Democrat from Winston-Salem. He's also chairman of the 39-member North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. He joins U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, who endorsed Biden last year.
Support from the African-American community is essential to the former vice president's frontrunner status. A High Point University poll in November gave Biden the edge among North Carolina's Democratic voters. And despite an eventful winter of debates and a narrowing of the field, subsequent polls have shown him hanging on to the lead.
Early voting in North Carolina is just over three weeks away for the Super Tuesday primary election on March 3rd.