AFL-CIO Expected to Endorse Biden

The AFL-CIO is expected to endorse President Joe Biden's re-election campaign on Friday, a source familiar with the matter told The Messenger.

The AFL-CIO’s general board will meet on Friday to consider endorsing Biden, a source said. The expectation is that the board, which is made up of representative groups of the federation’s membership, will vote to endorse the president.

The AFL-CIO also endorsed Biden in 2020, but the expected endorsement in 2024 is thought to represent the earliest in a presidential race the federation has ever endorsed a candidate. 

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the expected endorsement, which comes ahead of Biden traveling to Philadelphia for a rally with union workers, including members of the AFL-CIO. The event will bring together more than 2,000 union members from both the federation and non-affilated unions like the Service Employees International Union and the National Education Association.

Unions played a large role in Biden’s defeat of former President Donald Trump in 2020. After Trump made inroads with unions in 2016, Biden – who, as president, often casts himself as one of the most pro-union presidents in the nation’s history – stemmed the tide to Trump, especially in states like Pennsylvania, which Trump won in 2016 and Biden carried four years later.

“You’re a gigantic reason why I’m standing here… today as your president,” he told the AFL-CIO in 2022. “I really mean it. I owe you.”

Biden has had a longstanding relationship with the AFL-CIO, which endorsed President Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 election cycles when Biden was on the ticket as vice president. Biden consulted with the president of the AFL-CIO when considering a presidential run in 2016.