Kamala Harris struggles to secure men's support
1/11/2024 6:06
With the U.S. election
days away, Vice President Kamala Harris is struggling to secure
the support of male volunteers in some labor unions whose phone
calls and house visits are needed to get Democratic supporters
out to vote, senior labor officials said.
Most unions have long supported Democratic candidates, and
both Harris and President Joe Biden have backed unions in
contract negotiations and championed workers' rights.
But Republican candidate Donald Trump, who was president
from 2017-2021, has made inroads with union workers in recent
years and any drop in support for Harris could be a decisive
factor in the neck-and-neck race.
If elected, Harris would make U.S. history as the first
female and second Black president, and sexism and racism have
been seen as a hurdle to her winning.
Liz Shuler, president of the 12.5 million-member AFL-CIO,
said enthusiasm for Harris is strong overall but sexism is
likely undermining support for her in some unions.
"Let's be honest, there are people who look at a female
candidate and at face value dismiss her because, you know, she's
perceived as not being presidential," she said. "No one
questions Donald Trump in that way."
Finding these men at home can be a challenge and the AFL-CIO
is addressing the problem instead by visiting men at their job
sites, where chances of a conversation to address their concerns
are much higher, she said.
The problem is especially acute within the building trades
unions like electricians and pipefitters, whose members are
predominantly male and white.
Larger service unions, where membership is more diverse,
have witnessed a growing gender gap, where a drop in male
support has been offset by a surge in support from women, labor
officials say.
It's part of a phenomenon playing out across the country
that could be a pivotal factor in the election, Reuters polling
shows - Harris is gaining with women, especially white women,
while Trump is polling better with men than he was in 2020.
James Maravelias, head of the Delaware AFL-CIO, said Harris'
support among male members has been weaker in part because of
her liberal track record on social issues and in part because of
male chauvinism.
"I am afraid some won't come out at all," Maravelias said
about potential impact on Election Day.
In interviews, AFL-CIO door knockers said some households
view Harris and Democrats as strong defenders of union rights
while others have lost faith in the Democratic Party and see
more common ground with Trump.
“The men are the toughest doors,” said one of six door
knockers interviewed. “They want to argue and there’s no
agreement on the facts.”
An AFL-CIO-led door-knocking effort in the Philadelphia area
was forced to narrow its focus to known Harris supporters after
an expected wave of volunteers failed to materialize, according
to a local organizer.
Most major unions have endorsed Harris, including the United
Auto Workers union, but it is a mixed picture at the
rank-and-file level across industries and different parts of the
country.
POLL FAVORS HARRIS, BUT WILL IT BE ENOUGH TO HELP HER WIN?
Support for Harris remains strong in Racine, Wisconsin, said
Richard Glowacki, chairman of the UAW Local 180, which
represents workers at a CNH Industrial's sprawling tractor
factory on the outskirts of that faded blue-collar city.
He called demand for Harris' and other Democrats' yard signs
"unreal" and said retirees are actively getting out the vote.
But the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, representing workers ranging from airline pilots to
zookeepers, decided not to endorse a candidate in this election
after a poll of members found Trump led Harris by 59.6% to 34%.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Harris leading Trump 47%-36%
among Americans who were union members or had a family member in
a union. The survey of 655 union household respondents was held
Oct 16-21 and had a margin of error of about 4 percentage
points.
In the 2020 election, Biden had a 16-point advantage over
Trump - 56% to 40% - in an Edison Research poll of people who
lived in households with a union member.
Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the Harris campaign, said
steep losses in support among non-college educated males could
be made up by gains from non-college educated women. The Trump
campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UNION VOTES MATTER
Union workers make up one-fifth of the voters in
battleground states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, says
the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the country
that counts several building trades unions among its members.
The three states, known as the "Blue Wall" for their
importance to Democrats, are among the seven battlegrounds that
will decide Tuesday's presidential election.
Unions are also key to Democrats' "Get out the vote" efforts
in these states, and their members traditionally knock on
thousands of doors ahead of elections to rally voters.
Harris, who is also of South Asian origins, has dismissed
concerns that sexism could hurt her chances of winning the White
House, saying the country is "absolutely" ready to elect a
female president.
Jimmy Williams, president of the International Union of
Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), which has over 140,000
members, said a drop in support from men is being more than
offset by women within his union.
"I have spoken to women members in the states of
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio and I can tell you,
not one woman member that I have spoken to, has been somebody
who has been supportive of Donald Trump, not one," he said.
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