philadelphia<u+2014>lily eskelsen garc<u+00ed>a, the president of the national education association, is using her union<u+2019>s vast campaign machine to wage a personal fight against republican presidential nominee donald trump. as a hispanic married to a mexican citizen, she was insulted by his derogatory comments about mexican immigrants. as the daughter of a u.s. army veteran, she was upset by mr. trump<u+2019>s criticism of the parents of a muslim veteran killed in afghanistan. and, as a woman, she was offended by mr. trump<u+2019>s comments about how his status as a celebrity allowed him to grope women. <u+201c>this has hit me in every place i live,<u+201d> ms. garc<u+00ed>a, 61 years old, said in an interview. under ms. garc<u+00ed>a<u+2019>s watch, the teachers union is waging its most extensive election effort ever. she pushed the union to endorse democrat hillary clinton last fall, months before the primaries had started, and to start campaigning for her much earlier than the union has in prior elections. the nea has doubled the amount of money it is spending on a campaign to help mrs. clinton and other democrats, making it the top-spending labor union in the 2016 elections, according to election-spending reports. the nea has donated more than $14 million to groups that support the democratic ticket. ms. garc<u+00ed>a helps direct a union-led super pac, for our future, that has raised roughly $60 million for the presidential race and key senate races.<u+00a0>the nea has pledged $5 million to the for our future pac and an affiliate, and another $1 million to the super pac backing mrs. clinton<u+2019>s presidential campaign, priorities usa action. her union can also deliver key voters. among nea<u+2019>s three million members, roughly three-quarters are women, many of them with college degrees, who live in the swing suburban areas in presidential battleground states. based on the union<u+2019>s internal analysis, its members support mrs. clinton over mr. trump by 36 percentage points. some unions have had to work harder this year to hold their members as mr. trump<u+2019>s antiestablishment message and criticism of trade deals has resonated with many of their white voters who lack a college degree. the gop nominee has been endorsed by the fraternal order of police and the national ice council, which represents border-control workers. the afl-cio has been working to remind members and their families about mr. trump<u+2019>s antilabor stances, such as his support for so-called right-to-work laws that can drain unions of dues and members. ms. garcia and her union<u+2019>s political operatives are working to run up the vote among their predominantly pro-clinton membership in order to counteract any defections from the industrial unions. <u+201c>if you are a decent human being, you should be insulted<u+201d> by mr. trump, ms. garc<u+00ed>a told hundreds of union members at a rally in west philadelphia this month. <u+201c>if he doesn<u+2019>t like us, we<u+2019>re fat, we<u+2019>re ugly. he is incapable of respecting women.<u+201d> ms. garc<u+00ed>a then traveled to a clinton campaign office in suburban philadelphia to give a pep talk to campaign volunteers before joining a team that knocked on doors to urge people to vote for the former secretary of state. wearing a jean jacket in a room full of volunteers in blue t-shirts that read <u+201c>educators for hillary,<u+201d> ms. garc<u+00ed>a stood on a chair in a cramped campaign office in west chester, pa. <u+201c>there is nothing more important that you can do today,<u+201d> ms. garc<u+00ed>a said. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s what the cool kids are doing.<u+201d> not all teachers are on board. nancy bryant, a middle-school teacher in brunswick county, n.c., says she won<u+2019>t vote for mr. trump because of his treatment of women and business failings. but she isn<u+2019>t sold on mrs. clinton. she<u+2019>s mulling whether<u+00a0>to pick the <u+201c>lesser of two evils<u+201d> or write someone in. <u+201c>i still think she represents that political establishment that people are afraid of and is not working for them,<u+201d> ms. bryant said. and some teachers are backing mr. trump. wendy nixon, another teacher who lives in brunswick county, left her state-level union because she felt it wasn<u+2019>t helping her, and she<u+2019>s voting for mr. trump. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t trust her because of the clinton foundation, benghazi and her emails,<u+201d> said ms. nixon, who disagrees with mr. trump<u+2019>s lewd comments but won<u+2019>t be swayed by them. she likes that mr. trump has said he would get rid of common core education standards and make other nationwide changes that typical politicians wouldn<u+2019>t. also, <u+201c>i think his financial record as far as him being a businessman and negotiator would help us balance the budget,<u+201d> ms. nixon said. still, the bulk of the nea membership is rallying to the clinton ticket. <u+201c>i try to teach my students to be kind,<u+201d> said joy bock, a union member and eighth-grade social studies teacher who lives in licking county, ohio. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s hard to teach that when you have someone running for a top office doing the opposite.<u+201d> the daughter of a u.s. army veteran and a panamanian mother, ms. garc<u+00ed>a went to high school in salt lake city. her first job in education was doling out salad in a cafeteria for students at lunchtime. in 1989, she won teacher of the year in utah. a year later, she was elected president of the state<u+2019>s primary teachers union. she ran for congress in 1998 and said during president bill clinton <u+2019>s impeachment proceeding that the president should consider resigning if he <u+201c>truly wants to put this situation behind the country and move on.<u+201d> however, she said it would be <u+201c>irresponsible<u+201d> of her to propose the specific sanctions he should face without carefully weighing the evidence. in 2013, she married alberto garc<u+00ed>a, an artist she met in mexico when she contacted him about doing the artwork for a children<u+2019>s book they later wrote together. the wedding ceremony they held the following year was officiated by the partner of american federation of teachers president randi weingarten, who is a rabbi. mr. garc<u+00ed>a lives in mexico. she was elected as nea<u+2019>s president at its annual conference in july 2014. since then, she has aimed to make the union into a bigger force in both electoral politics and public policy in washington. emails among clinton staff released by wikileaks show that ms. garc<u+00ed>a pushed aggressively for the union<u+2019>s leadership to vote to endorse mrs. clinton last fall while maneuvering to defeat factions within labor ranks that supported her democratic rival, vermont sen. bernie sanders. one email to mrs. clinton from her chief of staff, john podesta, in september 2015 said that ms. garc<u+00ed>a and one of her aides, john stocks, had engaged in <u+201c>intense work<u+201d> on mrs. clinton<u+2019>s behalf. in prior elections, the union waited until the end of the primaries to issue an endorsement. the clinton campaign won<u+2019>t deny or confirm the authenticity of the emails. ms. garc<u+00ed>a said she underestimated mr. trump<u+2019>s political appeal at the start of the 2016 campaign, and she was soon offended by many of his remarks, particularly those regarding mexican immigrants, whom he has called <u+201c>rapists<u+201d> and <u+201c>drug dealers.<u+201d> <u+201c>having a husband who is from mexico, it<u+2019>s very personal,<u+201d> she said. <u+201c>it has personally offended me,<u+201d> she added, <u+201c>but i think this is personal to a whole lot of people.<u+201d> write to brody mullins at brody.mullins@wsj.com and melanie trottman at melanie.trottman@wsj.com
teachers union head brings political clout to bear for hillary clinton - wsj
brody mullins melanie trottman