The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, the nation’s largest public employee labor union will welcome the field of 19 Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday seeking out the union’s endorsement this election cycle, but that endorsement will not come as easily as it did last election cycle.
Just days after the candidates sparred on stage over healthcare policy and immigration in Detroit, they will now have the opportunity to connect with members of their party’s base organizing machine and propose each of their plans at UNLV. There, veteran political journalist Jon Ralston, editor of the Nevada Independent, and HuffPost Washington Bureau Chief Amanda Terkel will co-moderate the forum.
“[We] will be pressing the candidates on their plans to strengthen protections for working people and the position that unions occupy. We also want to hear specifics from candidates on how they intend to get their ambitious agendas through what could be a divided Congress, and their views on the role of government in people’s lives,” Ralston wrote at the Independent.
Additionally, candidates will answer questions directly from AFSCME members in attendance and watching the livestream on HuffPost.
Hillary Clinton received the prized endorsement from the 800,000 member large union organization during the Democrat presidential primary cycles of 2008 and 2016, but the national labor unions are reportedly more careful this election season about who they endorse and are not throwing their support behind any one candidate too early.
“We are in no rush to do anything,” Brian Weeks, political director of AFSCME, which endorsed Clinton in October 2015, told the Wall Street Journal back in May. “We want these candidates to be talking directly to our members.”
Around $240 million was spent by the unions in 2016 supporting Clinton’s 2016 campaign that helped organized members all over the country to canvass and door knock.
Up to now, former Vice President Joe Biden is the only candidate who has picked up a major labor endorsement back in April — the 316,000-member International Association of Fire Fighters, a union he has a close long history with. Biden has made union support a cornerstone of his campaign, and regularly talks up his backing from organized labor’s rank-and-file.
Democrats also look to take back a larger share of blue collar union member voters that Trump won in 2016 in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Clinton led Trump among union households by only 8%, the smallest Democratic lead since Walter Mondale’s failed presidential campaign against Ronald Reagan in 1984. President Barack Obama won union households by 18% against Mitt Romney in 2012.
