Joe Biden has billed himself as the candidate for the blue-collar worker and the Democratic Party has traditionally been the party of big labor. But Donald Trump continues to have a solid foundation among union-workers.
Despite a slew of union endorsements for Biden, support for President Trump in key battleground states remains strong.
“We haven’t moved the needle here,” said Mike Knisley, executive secretary-treasurer with the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council.
“Even if given all the information that’s been put out there, all the facts — just pick an issue that the president has had his hands in — it doesn’t make a difference.”
Knisley says about half of his members voted for Trump in 2016, and will probably do so again this year.
The only reason Biden is still competitive with union members, says Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, is because of Covid19.
“It’s going to be close among my members between Biden and President Trump, but there’s been dramatic change in the last six months,” McGarvey said.
If Trump had handled Covid19 better, “he’d be bulletproof. We wouldn’t even be talking about Joe Biden now,” McGarvey added.
Photo by The White House via Flickr