President Obama has told Democrats he will campaign for any of them in the next election if their decision to support Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA, leads to a primary challenge, White House spokesman Josh Earnest pledged Tuesday.
“If the president must make that case in a Democratic primary situation, he has made clear he will stand with them,” Earnest told reporters. “We haven’t seen that that kind of support has been necessary yet.”
Members know they “can go out and vote their conscience” because the president has made this personal commitment to them, Earnest said.
The White House offer to Democrats is an attempt to lure more of Obama’s Democrats into supporting TPA, which so far has the public support of just 14 Democrats. Failure to get more Democrats could sink Obama’s hopes of obtaining TPA, which would let him and the next president negotiate trade agreements that can’t be amended by Congress.
Many Democrats oppose TPA and the two agreements that might be negotiated under TPA, and say trade in general hurts American workers. Labor organizations and other traditional Democratic ally groups have threatened to back primary challengers to vulnerable members who vote for TPA or two massive trade deals currently being negotiated, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
But Earnest said Obama has explained to Democrats that TPA legislation passed by the Senate last month is the most progressive ever offered.
