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By Ethan Ennals

Published: 17:01 EDT, 16 September 2023 | Updated: 17:35 EDT, 16 September 2023

United States Congressman and former NFL star Burgess Owens is voicing his support for Donald Trump‘s campaign and slamming President Joe Biden as ‘the last segregationist in American politics.’

Owens, an African-American Republican from Utah’s fourth district, specifically credited Trump for helping black business owners during his lone term in office.

‘Donald Trump delivered record-breaking growth to all communities,’ Owens, a former Jets and Raiders defensive back, said in a statement. ‘As a child born in the segregated south, I witnessed Donald Trump help the black community more than any president in my lifetime. Record growth for black business owners, then to answer this, the Democrats nominated the last segregationist in American politics, Joe Biden.’

Owens, 72, supported Trump in 2016 and 2020, when the former Jets and Raiders defensive back was first elected to the House of Representatives.

‘Biden declared to the world if you don’t support him, ‘you ain’t black,’ well, once again, I don’t support him,’ Owens continued. ‘I’m proud to support Donald Trump in 2024, and I pray he gets the opportunity to finish the record growth he started. We need his boldness to reverse the damage Joe Biden has done before it’s too late.’

Trump has regularly pointed to job numbers for African Americans during his term to support his status as a job creator.

‘We reignited America’s job creation and achieved record-low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women — almost everyone,’ Trump has said.

Job creation actually slowed in 2017, Trump’s first year in office, to about 2 million, compared with nearly 2.5 million in 2016, Obama’s last year in office.

Of course, then came the COVID-19 pandemic that cost the US economy 10 million jobs, making Trump the first president since Herbert Hoover to oversee a net loss in that area. And the job losses have fallen disproportionately on Black Americans, Hispanics and women, according to a 2022 study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 

Before the coronavirus, nearly 500,000 manufacturing jobs were added under Trump, somewhat better than the nearly 400,000 gained during Obama’s second term. Still, even before the pandemic, the US had 4.3 million fewer factory jobs than it did in 2001, the year China joined the World Trade Organization and a flood of cheaper imports from that country entered the US.

The country did have the most jobs on record before the pandemic, but some experts chalk that up to a growing population.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer looked at Trump’s economic growth record. Growth under Trump averaged 2.48 percent annually before the pandemic, topping the 2.41 percent gains achieved during Obama’s second term. By contrast, the economic expansion that began in 1982 during Reagan’s presidency averaged 4.2 percent a year.

A University of Miami standout before the school’s glory years of the 1980s, Owens was picked 14th overall by the Jets in the 1973 NFL Draft.

He would go on to win Super Bowl XV as a member of the Los Angeles Raiders before retiring in 1982.

It was during that final season that he and his wife became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which led him to move to the religion’s cultural mecca of Utah.

In addition to getting active in charitable organizations, Owens also became a regular guest contributor on Fox News and parlayed that notoriety to a successful congressional campaign in 2020 – the same year he spoke at the Republican National Convention.

Currently Owens sits on the Education and Labor as well as the Judiciary committees.

Owens previously highlighted former President Donald Trump’s ability to shine light on true American values, and focus on what matters most. He told the Daily Caller in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, that ‘what our country is all about, what our conservatism is all about, what our American way is all about, is Head, Heart, Hands and Home. Head being education, Heart being God, Hands being industry and the free market, and Home being family.’

Owens is the second Utah lawmaker to endorse Trump’s 2024 campaign in August. Mayor Trent Staggs of Riverton, Utah, who is running to unseat Sen. Mitt Romney, announced his endorsement for Trump on Aug. 3 while decrying President Joe Biden’s record in office.

Owens, played 10 seasons in the NFL with both the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders.