Vice President Joe Biden said he is strongly considering a run for president during a phone conversation Friday with a major union leader, several news organizations reported, citing an unidentified source familiar with the discussion.
Biden reportedly spoke with Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, a union that claims to represent more than 300,000 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics.
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The call is the latest maneuver in Biden’s speculated campaign behind-closed-doors to gauge support for a White House run in 2016. He has repeatedly flirted with the idea in several public appearances, but has yet to officially announce.
Unions would be a major factor in his efforts, and there have been several signs the vice president is trying to court those groups that have not already pledged their support to other candidates.
On Labor Day, Biden appeared in a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. The AFL-CIO represents more than 12 million working men and women, encompassing 56 unions. Though Trumka praised Biden as a “good friend and a great champion of working people,” he said the AFL-CIO had still not made its decision on who to endorse.
The longer Biden waits to announce, if he does, the more unions he risks losing. Hillary Clinton has nabbed the endorsement of several major unions. On Oct. 4, the former secretary of state earned the endorsement of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union with over 3 million members working in the public education industry. She also has the backing of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s third-largest union.
Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, snapped up an endorsement from National Nurses United, the nation’s largest nurses union with 185,000 members.
Though labor typically supports Democrats, there is even talk of unions mulling the possibility of getting behing Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Biden’s family is reportedly on board with a presidential bid. “His family is totally on board,” said one Democrat close to Biden, reported CNN last week.
In a press conference Friday, President Obama said he would not comment on what Biden is planning to do. He did slip at one point however, calling Biden a “candidate.”
“I think that the vice president, like every other candidate, makes their own decisions about these issues and they will have to figure out whether it makes sense for them,” he said.
