Some more big news today:
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, is expected to endorse Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren for president at a rally Saturday night in Houston, according to a source familiar with the endorsement.
Weingarten is backing Warren in her personal capacity. The 1.7 million-member AFT has encouraged local unions and members to support either Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders or former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination to challenge President Donald Trump.
The endorsement could provide a jolt of support for Warren ahead of Super Tuesday, when voters will decided how to award roughly one-third of the pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Warren is counting on a strong Super Tuesday performance in California, Texas, Massachusetts and elsewhere to make up for middling results in the early states.
The decision by Weingarten, who was a prominent backer of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential primaries, is likely to frustrate some local affiliates and members who have chosen to back Sanders. Several AFT affiliates, most notably the United Teachers of Los Angeles, have backed the democratic socialist’s presidential bid.
Many large national unions have been unable to reach a consensus on who to endorse in the crowded Democratic primary field. But Sanders has succeeded in winning the support of more local affiliates than any other candidate ― and, as of the end of January, the donations of more educators than any other candidate.
Weingarten has praised Warren in the past, calling the Massachusetts senator’s education plan “a game changer for our public schools and the 90 percent of America’s students who attend them.”
Warren has promised to name a former public school teacher as education secretary, and to increase K-12 education funding by $100 billion over the next decade ― the equivalent of giving every school in America an extra $1 million. Warren also shares the AFT’s skepticism of charter schools and high-stakes testing.
The AFT, which also represents community college instructors, school nurses and teachers aides, is one of the two largest teachers unions in the country. The 3 million-member National Education Association is yet to endorse a candidate.
By the way:
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, will endorse Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Saturday night at a rally in Houston, a source familiar with her plans told CNN, and she is also expected to introduce the Massachusetts senator at the event.
This endorsement is in a personal capacity -- Weingarten is breaking from the AFT's official position, which according to a resolution passed last week encourages its affiliates to support Warren, Sen.
Bernie Sanders or former Vice President
Joe Biden. The national union has not yet made a formal endorsement.
Her decision to back Warren days out from Super Tuesday comes as the Massachusetts senator has received a boost in
support from a super PAC, which has put significant resources behind a campaign that was facing a cash crunch earlier this month. The AFT represents 1.7 million members from more than 3,000 affiliates.
The 2020 primary has seen a fierce fight for the support of teachers and their increasingly powerful unions. Sanders' victory in Nevada was powered in part by the backing of the country's largest independent teachers union, the Clark County Education Association. Teachers' unions across the country launched a series of strikes in 2018 and 2019 as part of a broader backlash over stagnant pay and, in certain states, cuts in funding to public schools.
Weingarten's decision to publicly back Warren comes a day after the president of the California Federation of Teachers and AFT vice president Jeff Freitas said in a blog post that he would do the same. The AFT's second-ranking official, secretary-treasurer Lorretta Johnson, also made her decision public on Friday, announcing that she would endorse Biden.
While Warren is in the West, the members of the Massachusetts delegation are helping her get out the vote in Massachusetts:
On Saturday in Northampton, U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, exhorted the crowd to talk up Warren’s policies and knock on as many doors as possible.
“This is about saving the country,” he told the canvassers. “She will restore dignity to the office of the president because she respects people. He (President Donald Trump) just figures out how to insult us.”
Warren has more members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation supporting her than any other candidate. Just Friday night, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, endorsed Warren. McGovern said he wasn’t surprised.
“Because we think she is incredible,” he said. “We work with her on a daily basis. She cares about people, she cares about results and she cares about making a difference.”
“Elizabeth knows where she wants to take this country and she has a plan to get us there,” McGovern said. “It’s funny, I have a Republican colleague who disparages her by saying, ‘She has a plan for everything, doesn’t she?’ I say that’s a good thing. We now have a president who has a plan for nothing.”
As McGovern and Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz played cheerleaders, Ann Stockton manned the “Turf Table,” the heart of Saturday’s get-out-the-vote campaign. Stockton plotted areas volunteers wanted to canvas and helped them download an app called Minivan that mapped out the area and kept tally of contacts with potential voters. Each volunteer was armed with a big Elizabeth Warren button, a hard copy map of the neighborhood they would be working, an extensive list of talking points.
Volunteer Karen Walsh-Pio of South Hadley buttoned up her coat against the biting chill of Saturday morning, grabbed her clipboard and made her way through the crowd to the door. She said she keeps working for Warren.
“This is my fourth time,” she said. “I went to New Hampshire twice and worked in Northampton last week and again this weekend. She is in the best interest of the country. She will persist and get the job done.”
A delegation from the Tibetan Association of Massachusetts wished volunteers well as they headed out for the four corners of Northampton. Association spokesman Thondup Tsering said none of the delegation is eligible to vote but nevertheless wanted to show support.
“We support Elizabeth Warren,” Tsering said. “She is a very progressive candidate and in the past, she has been very supportive of human rights and especially about Tibet. We appreciate her progressive ideas such as health care for all and human rights. We feel she is the best candidate.”
I’m also really liking this:
A super PAC supporting Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) presidential bid unleashed a seven-figure digital ad buy Saturday targeting black voters in nine Super Tuesday states.
The ads represent the latest salvo in a blitz by Persist PAC, which has spent more than $14 million since its founding earlier this month. The ads are intended to boost Warren ahead of Super Tuesday, where polls show her lagging in many of the 14 states that will cast ballots on March 3.
The ads, which are part of a previously announced buy, underscore Warren's support from black activists and her plans to rectify a litany of racial inequities.
"We support Elizabeth Warren because she understands how race shapes policy and how race shapes practice," Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, says in one ad. "But not only does she understand it; she's got a plan for how to fix it and a plan for how to engage us in the decisions that impact our lives."
"No matter the odds, together we persist," a child narrator says in a second clip. "Together, we make the world we want to live in. It's time for a change, and we will deliver it."
The ads will run in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia through Super Tuesday, when a third of the pledged delegates up for grabs this cycle will be allocated.
Also, please don’t forget to vote for Warren in Democracy for America’s presidential endorsement poll. Click here to cast your vote for Warren.
Let’s keep up the momentum for Super Tuesday. Click here to donate and get involved with Warren’s campaign.