Union endorsements rightfully carry a great deal of weight in the Democratic primaries, especially against a right-wing populist like Trump, who we know from 2016 will try to get to our left on hot-button economic issues like trade agreements, manufacturing job losses, and offshoring. With that in mind, may I point out that Politico has a piece up today reminding everyone that Bernie Sanders’ union support is “snowballing”:
Most national unions haven’t picked a favorite yet in the Democratic presidential primary.
It’s been a boon for Bernie Sanders.
Rather than harming Sanders, a longtime labor ally who has promised to work to double union membership as president, the reluctance to offer endorsements at the national level has enabled more progressive-minded local unions and labor groups to come out in force for the Vermont senator.
Sanders has already racked up 11 labor endorsements, more than any of his Democratic rivals, most of which are from local, regional and statewide unions. And some are among the most powerful labor organizations in early-voting and Super Tuesday states.
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The support of labor unions such as New Hampshire’s SEIU Local 1984, which represents more than 10,000 members, gives Sanders a boost of momentum and ground troops in critical early-voting states. Sanders has also won the backing of large teachers local unions in California, which votes on Super Tuesday, and in Nevada.
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Given teachers' and nurses’ close relationships with members in their communities, Sanders’ team is hopeful that their canvassing will be especially effective.
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Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under the Clinton administration, suggested that Sanders’ success stems from his work courting unions and their members, including by proposing to offer them advantages if Medicare for All passed. Under his plan, businesses whose workers have union-negotiated health care coverage would have to renegotiate their contracts if single-payer became the law of the land — and direct any windfall to the employees.
Sanders might also be benefiting from the effort he’s made to professionalize his 2020 campaign, including his political operation. In 2016, he had no political director. Analilia Mejia, who previously worked for SEIU and UNITE HERE, is now his national political director.
Emphasis mine. A lot of people forget that in 2016, Bernie was simply running an issues campaign until Iowa, at which point his outperformance of the polls (combined with his successive 20 point win in NH) led him to scramble to staff up an actual serious, competitive national operation, by which time there was little chance to prevent getting wiped out in many key states. Also, by the time of the Iowa caucuses, most of the big national unions had already endorsed HRC.
2020 is shaping up to be a lot different. Don’t take it from me, take it from Chris Matthews (hardly a Bernie stan):
Sanders supporters: keep pushing! Bernie volunteer options, in order of importance:
1. If you’re in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina:- find an event near you: events.BernieSanders.com - Download BERN and add everyone you know and ask them to support Bernie: https://app.berniesanders.com/
2. If you’re not in one of those first four early states, the most important thing you can do is get to one of those first four early states, especially IA and NH. Take the “Bernie Journey” and travel there to knock on doors: https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/…
3. If you can’t get there in person, make calls to early states. The Campaign has a huge goal of 5 10 million calls before Iowa. You can do it on your own from home, there’s a chatbox if you need help, and there’s a community on Slack of other callers to talk to. As a “coastal, urban elite” with a small child, I have mainly been volunteering in this way, and it is super easy and even quite fun at times. https://berniesanders.com/call
4. VOTE EARLY! Early voting info (and general 50 state voting info).