hillary clinton speaks at the service employees international union 2016 international convention on may 23 in detroit. | getty new data provided to politico shows the gop nominee with just 17 percent support among unionized service workers. by gabriel debenedetti 10/12/16 09:00 am edt donald trump<u+2019>s path to the presidency requires his brand of protectionism to drive union members to abandon democrats, but new data provided to politico shows that a huge part of organized labor <u+2013> the service industry <u+2013> isn<u+2019>t following suit. according to a member poll conducted by the nearly 2 million-member service employees international union last month and provided to politico, trump<u+2019>s support among the group was 17 percent <u+2014> 51 points behind hillary clinton, far lower than even jeb bush<u+2019>s 24 percent in the spring, and behind both mitt romney and john mccain during their presidential bids. story continued below armed with that data and the belief that union voters will make up roughly one-fifth of voters in key battlegrounds like ohio and pennsylvania, the seiu has re-doubled its paid and volunteer efforts in the campaign's home-stretch to churn up a base wave for clinton, unleashing its largest ever independent expenditure campaign, partnering with other political organizations, such as color of change and nextgen climate, and following through on its plan to spend more than half of its $70 million campaign season political budget on engagement with african american, latino, and asian and pacific islander communities. <u+201c>the notion that trump is performing well with union households? we<u+2019>re seeing it in the afl-cio, we<u+2019>re seeing it across the labor movement: it<u+2019>s just not there. trump is actually underperforming romney and mccain among seiu members, which is pretty extraordinary,<u+201d> said steve rosenthal, the group<u+2019>s interim political director. 2016 by annie karni the seiu is just one piece of the larger web of liberal organizations working to defeat trump and elect clinton. it<u+2019>s also a union that does not represent manufacturing workers <u+2013> a group more open to trump<u+2019>s anti-trade agenda. seiu represents service industry workers, who, compared with the manufacturing industry, tend to be more black and brown than white, and its base-focused operation in those communities is unlike any other. <u+201c>we have to get african american and latino voters performing as closely to what they did in <u+2019>12 as we can in terms of turnout,<u+201d> added seiu president mary kay henry in an interview at the union<u+2019>s headquarters in washington. <u+201c>that<u+2019>s why we<u+2019>re doubling down." on the volunteer side alone, it had 8,400 canvassers on the ground over the weekend of sept. 10, nearly 3,500 last weekend, and roughly 1,000 rolling through pennsylvania, florida, and new hampshire every weekend. now, on saturday, it will be ramping up by expanding that volunteer program to colorado, nevada, michigan, and ohio, while the group works to mobilize hispanics through canvases and phone banking in los angeles, fresno, denver, milwaukee, philadelphia, houston, orlando, chicago, phoenix, and tucson. by anna palmer and jake sherman part of the seiu's offensive has involved investing in latino-focused digital ads and partnering with iamerica to air 30-second spanish language anti-trump tv ads in nevada and florida pegged to his immigration policy. much of its focus, however, is on the independent expenditure canvassing program: it is aiming to make three stops at over one million doors in pennsylvania, colorado, florida, michigan, and virginia, according to data provided to politico. the union has already completed its first round of door-knocks, which was focused on issue discussions in which the canvassers discussed trump<u+2019>s positions on policies important to the voters before encouraging them to sign a pledge to vote against the republican nominee. in subsequent passes, rosenthal explained, they<u+2019>ll offer issue comparisons between trump and clinton, before focusing on the get-out-the-vote effort in the third round. and the group's focus on the ground is heavily skewed toward turning out minority communities. democratic forces have identified north carolina, ohio, pennsylvania, and florida as must-win states for trump, and two of those are where the seiu<u+2019>s program is largest: in florida, 27 percent of its nearly 570,000 targeted doors belong to african american voters, 72 percent latino. of the over 213,000 households in pennsylvania, the targeted households are 82 percent black and 14 percent latino. <u+201c>because of who we are, it meant that we believe we can make the biggest impact in this election by partnering in communities of color and white working class communities to educate on the issues that we think matter most to working people,<u+201d> said henry, noting that the seiu's membership is majority female and majority people of color. by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
labor giant seiu pumps resources into anti-trump effort - politico
gabriel debenedetti annie karni anna palmer jake sherman michael grunwald