Derek Eadon, a former deputy campaign manager for Julián Castro and ex-chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, announced his support for Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid Friday, handing the Vermont senator one of his most prominent endorsements from an Iowa Democrat.

Eadon, a 36-year-old veteran of Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, does not fit the typical profile of a Sanders endorser. But a multiyear bout with trigeminal neuralgia, a rare nerve disease that causes acute facial pain, has ruined his finances and reshaped his politics.

The political consultant, whose condition has cost his family an estimated $40,000 in out-of-pocket costs and brought them to the brink of bankruptcy, said Sanders’s record won him over. Eadon is now an outspoken proponent for “Medicare for All” and an admirer of Sanders’s consistent support for the plan.

“Something that Bernie has that other candidates don’t is he has that background and that consistency,” Eadon said. “He is not just saying ‘Medicare for All’ or ‘no corporate money’ while he’s running for president. He’s been there all along.”