IAFF endorses Joe Biden:

[Kingofalldems]

Link to tweet

[underthematrix]

1. This is very good news.

[George II]

2. They hinted at this last week but held off until he was formally a candidate. He'll be speaking....

....to union workers at a rally in Pittsburgh this afternoon.

[progressoid]

3. Just had a conversation about this with a friend who is a firefighter.

He's a union and Democratic supporter. He was reminiscing about how they botched it last time when they refused to endorse anyone in 2016.

I recalled that they backed Chris Dodd in 2008. He told me that a lot of guys in his local wasn't particularly pleased when that endorsement switched to Obama later in the race.

[seaglass]

6. My husband is a recently retired FF and he told me that he was hearing FFs weren't happy

that the decision was made this early - which is directly related to the mistake they made endorsing Dodd so early. Not surprised they endorsed Biden.

They were cowards for not endorsing Hillary.

[Demsrule86]

4. Great news!

[stonecutter357]

5. K&R

[blm]

7. That's a big one, and, always makes the difference in Iowa and NH.

[Hortensis]

8. This speaks to ELECTABILITY. IAFF members moved to Trump

in 2016 even though the union had traditionally supported the Democratic Party for its pro-union policies. That support had declined for some time, narrowly voting for Obama twice. Then in 2016 only 27% said they voted for Hillary, twice as many said they voted for Trump, and "an unusually large number" refused to say.

From late November 2016:

"Nearly 85 percent of professional firefighters are white, and more than 95 percent are men, making them look a lot like the other blue-collar voters who surged to Donald Trump this year. But firefighters are also heavily unionized, tend to live in cities or suburbs (rural areas often have volunteer fire companies) and are government employees — all factors generally associated with the Democratic Party. And all of those characteristics, along with the fact that firefighters are roughly evenly distributed across the country (rural areas often have volunteer fire companies) and are government employees — all factors generally associated with the Democratic Party.

And all of those characteristics, along with the fact that firefighters are roughly evenly distributed across the country, make the group a microcosm of the larger breakup between working-class whites and the Democratic Party this year.

Now this. Biden. Electability.

Suggesting we can get more of those white male working class men back, those who haven't already returned by the midterms, by electing someone they trust to care about their issues, without back-burnering our commitments to equality of women and minorities.

Notably, the endorsement is not of Sanders, who had the next-largest support after Trump in 2016 and undoubtedly tried to woo them again this time.