Politico: Unions crank it up for Biden launch

[highplainsdem]

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/24/joe-biden-unions-2020-1289642

His political operation is still taking shape. There are concerns about whether he’ll be able to raise enough money to compete. He hasn’t run his own campaign in over a decade.

What Joe Biden does have, however, are strong ties to organized labor. And on the eve of his expected entry into a primary where 19 other Democrats have a head start, the former vice president is counting on his longtime union allies for a show of force.

It’s a powerful reminder that whatever hurdles lie ahead for Biden on the campaign trail, he enters the race with a reservoir of goodwill from a key Democratic constituency. But it also emphasizes the traditional nature of his candidacy in a diverse and crowded primary where that might not be an asset.

After announcing his 2020 bid in a video to be released Thursday, Biden is expected to formally kick off his campaign with a Monday rally at a Pittsburgh union hall. United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said Biden can count on steelworkers to turn out on Monday, including many “wearing their USW gear.” The same holds true for the International Association of Fire Fighters, according to an IAFF spokesman.

For Biden, labor’s heavy presence would serve to underscore an argument central to his case for the Democratic nomination: that he continues to be serve as the party’s best-known emissary to working-class whites, the precise demographic that Donald Trump picked off in key industrial states like Pennsylvania in 2016.

“Clearly many of us in the labor movement and in our union are friends with Vice President Biden. He’s been a true supporter of working people and their agenda. He’s someone who we’ve worked with a lot and we all admire tremendously,” Gerard told POLITICO, though he cautioned that a formal primary endorsement hasn’t yet occurred and must go through internal processes. “I can say that it would be an understatement to say that our members admire and look forward to working with Vice President Biden. He’s been strong in particular on infrastructure and jobs.”

In the run-up to his announcement, Biden has put in his time in front of labor groups, including recent speeches before the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the IAFF. Last week, Biden appeared at the Stop & Shop supermarket strike in Dorchester, Mass., with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, himself a strong labor supporter and Biden ally.

“I think there is one thing that is inarguable: The Democrats as a party and the presidential candidates, have had problems with union members defecting to Republicans since the Reagan era,” said Larry Rasky, a Boston-based consultant who worked on both of Biden’s previous presidential campaigns. “Everybody knows that the candidate with the best chance of bringing union members — not necessarily the leadership but the rank and file — back into the Democratic fold is Biden.”

-snip-

“There were three reasons Barack Obama chose Biden as a running mate: his foreign policy chops, his debating skills and the third was his appeal to working class voters, particularly in the Midwest,” Rasky said. “He delivered on all three of those accounts. Those ethnic, blue collar voters, what we refer to as ‘Reagan Democrats,’ they are the people we need to turn the Electoral College on Trump. I think it’s apparent to the leadership for a lot of unions that Joe is the guy who can deliver.”

[Cha]

1. Brilliant.. Mahalo, highplainsdem!

[NYMinute]

2. Unions will be all in for Biden

and not just the leadership - the rank and file as well.

Biden has championed the union cause all his life.

[redstateblues]

3. 35 year Union member here-All in for Joe

[brer cat]

4. K&R

[samnsara]

5. JOE!!