Sen. Elizabeth Warren launched her candidacy
at the site of a famous labor union strike in
Lawrence, Massachusetts. Democratic front-
runner Biden held his first rally at a Teamsters
union hall in Pittsburgh. And under pressure
from organized labor, Bernie Sanders recently
added additional language to his “Medicare
for All” plan to provide additional oversight for
union members.
“Candidates understand that our members have
sky-high expectations, and that’s being reflected
in their campaigns,” said AFL-CIO spokesman
John Weber.
The Democrats’ intense courtship of organized
labor reflects a new urgency for the party
after Trump’s relative success with working-
class voters in 2016. Trump lost the majority
of AFL-CIO voters nationwide, according to
data collected the union, but he outperformed
previous Republicans.
Specifically, Trump earned 37% of the AFL-CIO
vote in 2016 compared with Democrat Hillary
Clinton’s 56%. Four years earlier, Republican Mitt
Romney earned 33% compared with President
Barack Obama’s 65%.
The courtship is playing out aggressively in
California, which has a new, early primary date
and new sway in the nomination process.
Warren was the first to comment on the dispute
between labor and big tech in the state,
prompting home-state Sen. Kamala Harris, also
running for the White House, to follow suit.
Sanders has pushed similar legislation at the
federal level for years and has expressed strong
support for the California proposal.