The Service Employees International Union, which represents about 2 million health-care, property service and government workers, plans to spend $200 million to boost President Biden and Democrats in electoral battlegrounds across the country this year, officials at the group told The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
The union is making its largest investment ever \u2014 after spending roughly $150 million in the 2020 presidential cycle \u2014 as it aims to reach 6 million voters of color and, more broadly, turn out working-class voters who are less likely to vote or have never voted, according to SEIU\u2019s leaders. The significant spending plan in part reflects growing concern in Democratic circles about Biden\u2019s ability to turn out working-class Black, Latino and Asian American voters \u2014 who made up a significant chunk of his base in 2020 \u2014 for the presidential election.<\/p>\n
Democrats have long held a strong edge with working-class voters of color who do not have college degrees, but recent polls have shown an erosion of such support for Biden. Over a quarter (27 percent) of the union\u2019s members are Latino, 24 percent are Black, 9 percent identify as Asian American and Pacific islander, and 40 percent are White, the group said.<\/p>\n
Leaders from SEIU, which endorsed Biden\u2019s reelection bid last year, said they plan to aggressively highlight to voters the stark difference between Biden and former president Donald Trump on both rhetoric and policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that so much is at stake for working people, and we will put our money where our mouths are,\u201d said April Verrett, SEIU\u2019s secretary-treasurer, who is running to be the union\u2019s president when longtime leader Mary Kay Henry steps down in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at their records, if you look at what they stand for, it is really clear. You\u2019ve got night and day candidates,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The union said it will focus on turning out infrequent voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia \u2014 all states where Biden defeated Trump \u2014 as well as North Carolina, where Trump won in 2020 and where a competitive gubernatorial race is underway. It also plans to spend in California and New York, where the SEIU has a strong membership presence and several key U.S. House races will be decided. It will also invest in Ohio and Montana, where there are competitive Senate races.<\/p>\n
The money will go toward an expansive field program, grass-roots organizing, advertising and partnering with community groups in those states. Rocio S\u00e1enz, SEIU\u2019s executive vice president, said the union and its allied groups have already knocked on almost 900,000 doors as part of the program, which will include outreach in seven languages.<\/p>\n
Verrett said SEIU hopes to build off momentum from worker strikes and union organizing in the last year and sees it as the union\u2019s role to \u201cconnect the dots\u201d and educate voters about Biden\u2019s record on issues such as the economy, labor and health care.<\/p>\n
Verrett said the union is also aiming for down-ballot wins.<\/p>\n
A recent New York Times-Siena College poll showed a dramatic shift among non-White voters without a bachelor\u2019s degree \u2014 often shorthanded in political circles as working-class voters of color. In 2020 exit polls, this group favored Biden by 46 percentage points, but the NYT-Siena poll this month found Biden\u2019s margin at six points, with 47 percent supporting him and 41 percent backing Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore and more, people of color are going to be where the power lies \u2014 and so that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to engage them now, get them to be participants in our democracy now while there\u2019s still a democracy for them to participate in,\u201d said Verrett.<\/p>\n
Some working-class voters have expressed deep frustration with Biden over the economy as they have faced hardship with rising prices in recent years and high interest rates. In interviews with voters in battleground states, some question what exactly Biden has done in his first term and feel he hasn\u2019t delivered on certain promises he made on issues, such as voting rights and immigration.<\/p>\n
The union has held roundtables across the country to hear how voters are feeling. One of the key takeaways, the group said, is that many people don\u2019t know all the things that Biden has done during his time in office. That\u2019s why they\u2019re making it a priority to educate voters on Biden\u2019s work to lower prescription drug prices and offer subsidies for affordable internet and his long-standing support for labor unions.<\/p>\n
Democratic strategists have said it will take aggressive spending and a strong messaging campaign to help Biden perform well with working-class voters of color in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a political party that has brought jobs back from overseas and has created jobs in manufacturing and in construction \u2014 and that\u2019s the Democratic Party. If we tell that story to working-class Latinos, Black people and AAPI people, we will turn them out,\u201d said Kristian Ramos, a longtime Democratic strategist and founder of Autonomy Strategies. \u201cSo, it\u2019s desperately needed in the 2024 conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden continues to struggle with White voters without college degrees, who favored Trump by 33 percentage points, 62 percent to 29 percent, in the NYT-Siena poll.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Service Employees International Union, which represents about 2 million health-care, property service and government workers, plans to spend $200 million to boost President Biden and Democrats in electoral battlegrounds across the country this year, officials at the group told The Washington Post. The union is making its largest investment ever \u2014 after spending roughly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}