HOUSTON — Elizabeth Warren, a former public school teacher, has earned an important union endorsement, even if it’s in a personal capacity.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, backed the Massachusetts senator before introducing her at a South Carolina primary night town hall held across the country in Houston.
“I’ve personally concluded that there is one who has the life experience that brings an understanding of what families — all families — need today to have a better future, the bold agenda to achieve that better life, and the wherewithal to work with others to turn her ideas into reality. And, of course, the toughness and persistence to take on Donald Trump,” she wrote in a blog post.
Here’s why I personally support @ewarren. Many @aftunion members & others have asked me who I personally support. Now building on the @AFTunion Reso encouraging our members to help Joe, Bernie and/ or Elizabeth, here’s why I am with @ewarren. #AFTvotes https://t.co/5X1ViMvNak
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) February 29, 2020
The endorsement from Weingarten, an influential labor leader and the head of the country’s second-largest group of unionized teachers, provides Warren’s 2020 Democratic presidential campaign with an injection of confidence after a string of disappointing performances in the first four early voting states.
Weingarten’s support follows the unveiling this week of other high-profile endorsements for Warren, including from California first lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman and fellow Massachusetts Democrat Richard Neal, and the Boston Globe. The Boston Globe’s editorial board wrote in December 2018 that Warren, who was a public school speech therapist for special needs students and then a nursery teacher in New Jersey during the 1970s before eventually becoming a Harvard Law professor, had “missed her moment in 2016.”
Yet Weingarten’s backing marks another data point in a trend that’s emerging during the Democratic race for the White House: union leadership chafing with their members.
Unable to settle on one candidate, the AFT last week passed a resolution encouraging its affiliate organizations and rank-and-file members to throw their political weight behind three candidates: Warren, as well as former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“While several candidates in this race share our values, three in particular — Vice President Biden, Sen. Sanders and Sen. Warren have significant support within our membership. There is a real connection with these three candidates because of their record of working with us over the years on public education, higher education, healthcare, labor and civil rights,” Weingarten wrote in a statement at the time.
Ahead of Nevada, the state’s Culinary Workers Union warned its 60,000 members not to caucus for Sanders or Warren because “Medicare for all” could “end” their negotiated healthcare plans. The group’s opposition to Sanders’s signature legislative proposal resulted in leaders being “viciously” harassed online, via email, and over the phone.
Although the Culinary Workers Union didn’t endorse a contender, secretary-treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline singled out Biden as a “friend.” However, leadership’s posturing didn’t matter on caucus day. For example, Sanders, 78, dominated Las Vegas’s Bellagio at-large precinct with 76 of the 123 caucusgoers, many of whom belonged to the Culinary Workers Union, standing in his corner.
