Insurgent Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders finally has a supporter in the U.S. Senate.

In a New York Times op-ed published this morning, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said that while “Hillary Clinton has a remarkable record” and the former Secretary of State “would be a strong and capable president,” it was Merkley’s colleague who “is boldly and fiercely addressing the biggest challenges facing our country.”

Sanders “has opposed trade deals with nations that pay their workers as little as a dollar an hour,” wrote Merkley. “Such deals have caused good jobs to move overseas and undermined the leverage of American workers to bargain for a fair share of the wealth they create in our remaining factories.”

“He has passionately advocated for pivoting from fossil fuels to renewable energy to save our planet from global warming — the greatest threat facing humanity. He recognizes that to accomplish this we must keep the vast bulk of the world’s fossil fuels in the ground.”

“Bernie is a determined leader in taking on the concentration of campaign cash from the mega-wealthy that is corrupting the vision of opportunity embedded in our Constitution,” continued Merkley, declaring that Sanders “has been unflinching in taking on predatory lending, as well as the threats to our economy from high-risk strategies at our biggest banks.”

Hours after the op-ed was published, Merkley told MSNBC’s Morning Joe, “this really is all about the person who has the boldest, the fierce vision on the biggest issues facing America and the world.” Citing Sanders’ work against free trade and for expanding the role of government in health care, as well as for veterans’ care and global warming, the senator said Sanders has, on “issue after issue … he’s been out there, leading, clearly, long before he ever decided to run.”

Clinton and Sanders’ Supporters

According to the political and campaign analysis website FiveThirtyEight, Clinton has the support of 40 of her Senate colleagues, 160 U.S. Representatives, and 13 governors. Sanders has the backing of eight Representatives, Merkley in the Senate, and no governors.

Clinton garnered an early lead in the Democratic primary, but Sanders is closing the gap. He has won the last seven states that have held primaries or caucuses, according to The Associated Press, and he has 1,083 pledged delegates, compared to Clinton’s 1,289. Clinton has the backing of 469 of the party’s 500 “superdelegates,” who can support whichever candidate they choose.

Sanders has done especially well in states whose delegates are assigned through caucuses. However, those victories include far fewer participants than races in state primaries, which favor Clinton. A FiveThirtyEight analysis concluded that, combined with other factors, this means his popular support is smaller than his number of pledged delegates would otherwise indicate.

Polling shows Clinton holds a substantial lead in New York state, which holds its primary on April 19. The next state to decide between the Democratic candidates, it has 247 pledged delegates for the candidates to capture. One-hundred-sixty-three of those pledged delegates are awarded proportionally by each of the congressional districts in the state. An additional 84 pledged delegates will be proportionally designated at the state convention, according to the New York State Board of Elections.