The program would be the largest investment ever for the union, which spent around $150 million in the 2020 presidential cycle.
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Members of the Service Employees International Union protesting outside the site of a Republican presidential debate last year in Milwaukee.
The Service Employees International Union said on Wednesday that it would spend $200 million to reach out and mobilize working-class voters to back President Biden and other Democrats.
The union, which represents about two million health-care, service and government workers, hopes to harness the upswing in union activity, not just among industrial unions like the United Automobile Workers but less traditional work forces such as nurses, Hollywood writers and actors, students and Starbucks workers.
The S.E.I.U. said it hoped to reach six million voters of color in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“Workers walked the picket lines for better pay and better jobs, and we will vote for the same reasons,” the union’s secretary-treasurer, April Verrett, said in a statement. “Workers of all races know what’s at stake in this election.”
The $200 million effort would be the largest investment ever for the union, which spent around $150 million in the 2020 presidential cycle. Mr. Biden has called himself the most pro-union president in history, as have some of his allies in organized labor, and Rocio Sáenz, the executive vice president of the S.E.I.U., cited the president’s walking the picket line with the U.A.W. and other efforts to help unions as a reason to mobilize.
Working-class voters, especially Black and Latino blue-collar workers, will be a key constituency in the coming presidential campaign. Mr. Biden believes his policies have benefited such voters, especially those in unions. But former President Donald J. Trump has made inroads in the traditional Democratic voting bloc, which has expressed frustration about inflation and could prove open to his anti-immigration message.
A number of groups have pledged financial firepower to Mr. Biden’s re-election efforts. They include VoteVets, which supports veterans running for office, with a $45 million plan to back Mr. Biden and other Democrats. Future Forward, the main Democratic super PAC aiding Mr. Biden’s bid, is planning to spend $250 million on advertising. And MoveOn has announced a $32 million program.
Jonathan Weisman is a politics writer, covering campaigns with an emphasis on economic and labor policy. He is based in Chicago. More about Jonathan Weisman
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Source: nytimes.com
