2020 candidates to pitch working-class credentials to union
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A half-dozen Democratic presidential candidates will descend on Las Vegas on Saturday to pitch themselves to one of America's largest unions as champions of workers and kitchen-table issues.
The daylong forum is organized by the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Service Employees International Union. It's expected to focus on wages and working people's issues as union leaders and their supporters worry the 2020 field of at least 20 Democrats is spending too much time talking about esoteric issues rather than about bread-and-butter concerns.
Just this week, several Democratic contenders debated whether criminals in prison should be able to win back their right to vote, the type of issue that some union leaders worry has nothing to do with the economic issues that motivate some working-class voters. It's that anxiety that's fueling Joe Biden's newly launched presidential campaign.
The former vice president will not be in Las Vegas on Saturday but will hold his first public event on Monday at a union hall in Pittsburgh. He's expected to scoop up a major endorsement from the International Association of Fire Fighters while calling to bolster the middle class.
Read more: http://www.dnronline.com/associated_press/national/candidates-to-pitch-working-class-credentials-to-union/article_d0eff4f3-4aa2-5c3d-8660-a50c5e51bfc0.html
(Harrisonburg Daily News-Record)