Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and 2020 presidential candidate, center, poses for a photograph with a supporter during an event at Washington Square Park in New York, U.S., on Monday, September 16, 2019. Warren rolled out a sweeping anti-corruption plan Monday that would toughen rules for wealthy and influential figures seeking to influence policy, hours before she intends to pitch it to voters in Wall Streets back yard.
Elizabeth Warren mastered the art of the 'selfie line'
01:19 - Source: CNN
CNN  — 

Netflix’s “Queer Eye” star and advocate Jonathan Van Ness on Wednesday said he is endorsing Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren for president in 2020.

Van Ness, a cast member of the reality makeover show who recently publicly shared he is HIV positive, tweeted Wednesday, “The moment I knew I was endorsing @ewarren was last month when I misplaced my HIV meds.”

“It cost $3500 to replace them out of pocket with ‘amazing’ plantinum (sic) level insurance,” he wrote. “Healthcare shouldn’t be for profit ever, it’s a human right.”

Shortly after his announcement, Van Ness posted to Twitter a video of Warren calling him to thank him for the endorsement. “I’m glad we’re going to be in this fight together, side by side,” the Massachusetts senator is heard saying on speakerphone.

Jonathan Van Ness image 2

“Health care is a basic human right, and we fight for basic human rights,” Warren said. Van Ness said he wanted to work with Warren to de-stigmatize the idea of universal health care, and asked Warren to tell him how he could best be of service.

Warren, who has been steadily rising in the polls, backs eliminating private insurance and has endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” single-payer legislation. The bill would create a national government-run health care program and essentially eliminate the private insurance industry. Warren has not released a health care plan of her own, and has instead thrown her support behind Medicare for All.

The Massachusetts Democrat co-sponsored legislation in the Senate aimed at lowering the price of prescription drugs, which includes allowing the federal government to manufacture generic medications if their prices spike.

Van Ness this week published a memoir, “Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love,” where he writes about being sexually assaulted as a child, battling drug addiction and being diagnosed with HIV. He recently discussed living with HIV with The New York Times.

In April, members of the cast of “Queer Eye” went to Capitol Hill to drum up support for the proposed Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, sex and sexual orientation by expanding the 1964 Civil Rights Act.