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Former Vice President Al Gore endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday, adding to the growing circle of prominent Democrats throwing their support behind him as the party works to coalesce before the general election.
Mr. Gore announced his support in a tweet shortly before an Earth Day event where he is scheduled to appear, virtually, with Mr. Biden. His endorsement followed one earlier in the day from Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, who ran a climate-focused campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“If I was talking to one person who had not yet decided who to vote for in this upcoming election, I would just say plainly and simply: This is not complicated,” Mr. Gore said at the Earth Day town hall. “If you care about the climate crisis, if you want to start solving the climate crisis, this is not rocket science.”
Mr. Gore served as vice president under Bill Clinton and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000. But two decades later, he is better known for his climate activism.
As vice president, he helped craft the Kyoto Protocol, which President George W. Bush abandoned in 2001 — just as President Trump abandoned its successor, the Paris Agreement, in 2017. As a private citizen, he made the climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” His voice could be influential in an election in which voters have described climate change as one of the most important issues.
At the same time, though, Mr. Gore comes from a very different Democratic Party than the one that exists today, and served in an administration whose policies many Democrats, especially younger ones, now explicitly reject.
It remains to be seen whether his endorsement will sway the young progressives who voted largely for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and whom Mr. Biden needs to win over. Climate change is a particularly important issue to them, and Mr. Gore emphasized it on Wednesday.
“Your election is absolutely crucial,” he told Mr. Biden. “And I want to do everything I can to convince everybody that cares about the climate crisis that this is a no-brainer. This is a real simple choice. And if anybody has any doubt about that, come talk to me.”
What Mr. Gore’s support certainly does is reinforce the central image Mr. Biden’s campaign is trying to present: a Democratic Party that has moved on quickly from its hard-fought primary and united around its presumptive nominee in the face of a once-in-a-lifetime threat.
Within weeks after he essentially wrapped up the nomination, Mr. Biden has received endorsements from former President Barack Obama, Mr. Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, another primary opponent.
His campaign has unveiled several major endorsements in quick succession as something of a show of force.
