GOP’s Armitage backs Clinton over Trump

The AFL-CIO is set to endorse Hillary Clinton Thursday, but a handful of unions within the massive labor federation are holding out support for the presumptive Democratic nominee and instead backing Bernie Sanders – with some even vowing to stick with her challenger until the bitter end.

Last week, the AFL-CIO’s political committee voted to back Clinton in the general presidential election, a move that all but locked up the endorsement for the former secretary of state.

As Hillary Clinton racked up labor endorsements over the course of the Democratic primary contest, the biggest labor federation in the country was conspicuously absent from her list of backers, having made a decision to remain neutral throughout the Democratic primary even as its member organizations largely flocked to the front-runner.

Sanders received far fewer endorsements, but he had support from vocal rank-and-file members who were more excited by his candidacy.

The exchange underscored Trump’s efforts to win over blue-collar workers who typically support Democrats, especially those in Midwest battleground states whose wages have stagnated and have been hurt by a decline in manufacturing jobs.

The board of the group – which comprises more than 50 national and worldwide unions representing almost 13 million people – voted to back the presumptive Democratic nominee over Bernie Sanders, in a highly expected move signally consolidating support around Clinton.

Trump has denounced “stupid” trade deals that hurt USA workers, a message that could have resonance in labor-heavy Rust Belt states that have been in the Democratic column in past elections such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. “Hillary Clinton has proven herself as a champion of the labor movement and we will be the driving force to elect her President of the United States”. “We’re definitely supporting her”, Johnson said.

The vote by the board of the AFL-CIO, which represents 12.5 million workers, comes two days after the final votes in the Democratic primary contest were cast.

In his statement Thursday, Trump relied heavily on the idea that some Sanders supporters might agree with him, or at least are not fully aboard team Clinton.

Labor critics and union watchdogs said that Clinton’s embrace of the AFL-CIO demonstrates her embrace of outdated labor laws. Fully 55 percent of likely voters surveyed in the recent Clinton vs. Trump poll indicated that they were “very bothered” by what Trump had said about the judge.

Unlike Trump’s foes in the GOP primary, however, Clinton may be better suited to avoid his national-security traps, thanks to her particular strengths with voters and the unique shape of the general-election race.