Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Nightly: Trump’s grip on the union rank-and-file

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

POLITICO Nightly: Trump’s grip on the union rank-and-file

Former President Donald Trump wears a hard hat given to him by steelworkers and stands with United Steel Workers local 1557 Vice President Richard Tikey during a campaign rally on October 19 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

UNION STRONG — Before the sun rose at the gates of UPS’s sorting warehouse in Philadelphia, Erik Lexie was handing out flyers to drivers and mail sorters clocking in for the morning shift and heading out for the night, informing them that their Teamsters’ local endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Trump supporting employees didn’t want to hear it.

“I wouldn’t vote for her if she was the only one running,” Bill, a 31-year-UPS veteran, said without breaking his stride in front of Lexie’s modest table with a “Teamsters for Harris” poster and a stack of flyers about why Local 623 endorsed the vice president.

Another UPS employee, when handed the flyer explaining why his local was backing Harris, threw it back at Lexie. When Lexie asked a third passerby if he had a plan to vote, without shifting his gaze from his trek to the parking lot, he replied, “Not for her!”

The scene, which unfolded last Wednesday, vividly captured the challenges Harris faces with organized labor this year. Union voters have long been a key element of the Democratic Party base. And most unions have endorsed Harris’ candidacy. But union leaders acknowledge their members are divided as Trump and other populist-leaning Republicans have made inroads with working class voters.

For the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, support for Trump among the rank and file is so robust — almost 60 percent nationally, according to its internal polling — that the union opted not to endorse any presidential candidate this year. It endorsed Joe Biden in 2020.

The drift away from the Democratic Party is a significant concern in a presidential election that will be decided by thin margins, and where the Rust Belt — which is home to many of these workers — is pivotal to Harris’ chances.

In the wake of the Teamsters’ non-endorsement, as well as the International Longshoremen’s Association and the International Association of Fire Fighters’ recent decisions to not endorse Harris, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz acknowledged his frustration Monday.

Ironically, Lexie isn’t a fan of Harris or Trump. He says he’s backing Harris because she’s better on labor issues and Trump wouldn’t commit to the Teamsters that he would veto national right to work legislation — shorthand for laws that make it harder to organize and maintain union membership.

Trump supporters seemed unconcerned about that distinction.

Brian Brocato, of Pittsburgh’s AFSCME Local 297, who has been canvassing for Harris in Western Pennsylvania said Trump supporters regularly slam the door in his face when he’s door knocking. When he can get a Trump supporter to crack their door open, he pleads for just two minutes to collect data for the door knocking app.

Alex Criego, an AFL-CIO local staffer also in Pittsburgh, said he’s also had the door slammed in his face by his union brothers and sisters who are backing Trump.

“They’re not persuadable,” he said, describing misinformation about immigrants eating people’s pets that’s frequently repeated to him. “I just back away [from them].”

In interviews with more than a dozen union members and canvassers, that was a common sentiment — rank-and-file members who support Trump have no interest in hearing the case for Harris.

“You think Trump supporters are able to change their mind?” John Weyer, a 29-year Michigan veteran of the UAW — which has endorsed Harris — said in an interview in Washington at a Stellantis manufacturers conference. “Not a whole lot resonates when you get the people that are saying goodbye to your face.”

Harris’ level of support varies widely between unions, of course, with support among industrial, male-heavy groups like the firefighters and Teamsters softer than support from other large, national unions. Leaders at the AFL-CIO rejected the idea that there was tension or resistance to hearing the case for Harris among some members.

“No, we’re not experiencing that,” said Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny-Fayette County Central Labor Council, in its Pittsburgh office that’s still decorated with wood paneling and a framed photo of Joe Biden with a priest. “The most important thing is they’re always going to be our brothers and sisters, and they’re going to be our brothers and sisters even after the election. Because someone has a different belief, you don’t shut the door. That’s not what we do.”

The AFL-CIO, which is the largest labor union in the country and has endorsed Harris, is in the middle of a multi-million-door canvas effort on her behalf. President Liz Shuler said that from its door-knocking data to date, its union members are 64 percent behind Harris, 19 percent with Trump and the rest are undecided or voting third party. Shuler said that a focus on talking about union contract concerns and national labor policy issues override partisanship, during an interview.

Shuler gave a rallying speech Saturday to about 150 volunteers before they went out to knock the doors of their fellow members, saying, “unions are the most trusted messages. We’re the ones who can break through.”

However, after those union volunteers got their canvassing assignments, several of them said they found it difficult to get a hearing from those who are supporting Trump, and nearly impossible to counter the fear-mongering and misinformation they heard about abortion and immigrants.

Weyer, the Michigan UAW veteran, said you can try to talk about staples of union hall discourse — such as contracts and benefits — “but Fox News is out there so we can’t shield them from that or social media.”

“I don’t know how effective this is anymore,” Joe Delale, a 75-year-old retired electrician and former leader at his local, said during his day canvassing in Pittsburgh. Trump had thoroughly remade these member-to-member conversations.

Delale had more success speaking on a doorstep with Jack Kier, a fellow retiree. Kier, 77, wasn’t in a union but his father was — that’s why he suspects he’s still on the AFL-CIO door-knocking list. He’ll be voting for Harris, but the majority of his buddies in his Marine veterans group definitely won’t be, he said.

“I want somebody in there who’s responsible … I’m just trying to be reasonable,” Kier said. “I can say that to you, but [to] those guys [his veteran friends], there ain’t no way.”

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at bgibson@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @brittanyagibson.

What'd I Miss?

— Court upholds key trespassing charge used against most Jan. 6 defendants: A divided federal appeals court panel has upheld a trespassing charge that prosecutors have leveled against more than 1,400 people who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The ruling today from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim by Jan. 6 defendant Couy Griffin that the government needed to prove he was aware that the Capitol grounds were restricted because a Secret Service protectee, then-Vice President Mike Pence, was inside. Without that proof, Griffin contended, prosecutors fell short of showing that he “knowingly” breached the Secret Service-protected perimeter.

— U.S. ‘very close’ to finalizing $20B share of G7 loan to Ukraine, Yellen says: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said today that the U.S. was “very close” to finalizing a $20 billion contribution to a broader loan package to Ukraine that will be repaid from the income generated by frozen Russian assets. “We’re 99 percent there and it’s nailing down just a couple of relatively small things,” Yellen told reporters. “We are very close.” The U.S. and its allies have been trying to iron out the details of the $50 billion loan package since leaders reached an agreement at the G7 meeting in June.

— Giuliani must give up Manhattan apartment to Georgia election workers, judge rules: A federal judge today ordered Rudy Giuliani to turn over a lengthy list of property , including his Upper East Side apartment, to the two former Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation verdict last year against the former New York City mayor. The decision by U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman is a significant loss for Giuliani, who has so far resisted paying any portion of the judgment. Giuliani must turn over the property, which also includes a Mercedes-Benz, more than a dozen luxury watches, cash and a $2 million legal claim for unpaid attorneys’ fees from the Trump 2020 campaign and the Republican National Committee, within seven days.

Nightly Road to 2024

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID — Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump promoted economic policy today as their best chance to win Latino voters. But their approaches are very different, writes The Associated Press.

In an interview with Telemundo this afternoon, Vice President Harris plans to highlight how her agenda would create more opportunities for Latino men — a strategy born out of roughly a dozen focus groups and polling.

The Democratic nominee intends to show off her plans to double the number of registered apprenticeships. She wants to stress how she would remove college degree requirements for certain federal government jobs and encourage private employers to do likewise. Harris also wants to provide forgivable loans worth up to $20,000 each to 1 million small businesses.

Former President Trump, the Republican nominee, made his own outreach to Latinos today, hosting a roundtable with them in Doral, a Miami suburb. Surrounded by elected officials and business leaders who are Latino, Trump touted the economy during his administration, which he argued was better for the Hispanic community than during the Biden administration.

HANDS OFF — The Georgia state election board’s controversial mandate requiring poll workers to hand-count the number of ballots cast will not take effect for the 2024 election.

The Georgia Supreme Court today rejected a bid by the Republican Party to reinstate the hand-count mandate and another new rule after a lower-court judge halted the rules last week.

The court’s unanimous decision prevents, for the foreseeable future, what election workers and state officials had warned would be a chaotic procedure that could lead to errors, fraud and protracted delays. The hand-count rule would have required poll workers across Georgia, starting as soon as election night, to perform a manual count of the number of ballots cast.

SHY HARRIS VOTER — In private, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has made clear that he supports Vice President Kamala Harris and would consider a role, perhaps Treasury secretary, in her administration, reports The New York Times.

That’s despite recent comments from him praising some of former President Donald Trump’s policies. He has also told his associates that the former president’s 2020 election denialism remains close to a disqualifying factor.

GOING ON ROGAN — Former President Donald Trump is expected to record an interview with podcasting behemoth Joe Rogan on Friday.

The interview will take place at Rogan’s studio in Austin, Texas, according to a person familiar with the plans who was granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

Rogan, who has more than 14 million followers on Spotify, has long occupied the top positions in national podcast ratings, and Trump’s appearance on his show continues the campaign’s push to win young male voters. In recent weeks, Trump has appeared on such male-friendly podcasts as “This Week w/ Theo Vaughn” and “Full Send,” a show hosted by the pro-Trump Nelk Boys.

ENDORSEMENT: NONE — The owner of the Los Angeles Times has blocked the paper from endorsing a candidate for president this year, reports Semafor.

Last week, the LA Times published its electoral endorsements for the 2024 election. And while the paper noted in its first line that it is “no exaggeration to say this may be the most consequential election in a generation,” that was the only mention of the presidential race in its endorsements.

AROUND THE WORLD

A Ukrainian flag flies above the ruins of buildings destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian occupying forces. | Carl Court/Getty Images

RUBBER STAMPED — The European Parliament approved an EU loan of up to €35 billion ($37.8 billion) to Ukraine that will be repaid through the profits generated by Russian frozen assets.

Parliament voted by a majority of 518 in favor and 56 against, clearing the final hurdle for the EU to finalize the payment before an end-of-year deadline.

The EU pledged to give up to €35 billion to Ukraine, but its share will decrease if the U.S. contributes to the loan, as is widely expected.

The EU’s involvement falls within a broader G7 initiative to hand out $50 billion to support Ukraine’s war-battered economy by the end of the year.

ROAD TO RECOVERY — A small town in far eastern Cuba was recovering today from flooding that killed at least six people after Oscar crossed the island’s eastern coast as a tropical storm with winds and heavy rain, reports The Associated Press.

Cuba’s capital was partially illuminated after a large-scale blackout generated a handful of protests and a stern government warning that any unrest would be punished.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on state television that rescue and recovery work continued in the town of San Antonio del Sur and officials hadn’t yet entered some flooded areas.

People in Havana collected subsidized food today and said the country faced an intensive recovery period.

Nightly Number

$633 million

The amount of money that Kamala Harris’ campaign and affiliated Democratic groups raised last quarter, pushing their total to over $1 billion while maintaining a cash advantage over Donald Trump’s campaign.

RADAR SWEEP

ONLYFRIENDS — OnlyFans, the online creator platform, is known mainly for one thing — lewd pictures and videos. But the British-based company itself is attempting to expand its mandate beyond that sort of content, and into more safe for work stuff. It’s managed to attract comedians, musicians and other influencers or content creators who are trying to monetize their own work. But with its reputation of being a place that people log onto for nude content, how are the creators who are doing something decidedly different handling the OnlyFans experience ? In WIRED, Andrew Rummer profiled some of these new OnlyFans creators and discussed the platform’s evolution.

Parting Image