Union backs Biden

Support crucial for Democrat candidates on eve of primaries

THE largest labour union in the United States has lined up behind Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, with the National Education Association on Saturday endorsing the former vice-president for the Democratic nomination over his last remaining primary rival Bernie Sanders.

The NEA’s board of directors chose Mr Biden following a recommendation from the organisation’s political action committee board, after months of surveying the organisation’s 3 million members and multiple presidential candidate forums held around the country.

NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia, whose union tops 3 million members, called Mr Biden a “tireless advocate for public education” and “the partner that students and educators need now in the White House”. The union’s decision came with Mr Biden on the cusp of stretching out an insurmountable delegate lead over Mr Sanders.

The two candidates are due to meet for their first one-onone debate (today 1pm AEST), two days before four states – Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio – hold primaries with a combined 577 delegates up for grabs.

Mr Biden currently leads Mr Sanders, a Vermont senator, by more than 150 delegates with more than half of the national total already awarded, a gap that means Sanders must win 57 per cent of the remaining delegates to wrest the nomination from Biden.

There is no precedent for such a comeback.

In the four states voting Tuesday (US time), almost 760,000 voters live in households with at least one NEA member, according to the union. Democratic presidential candidates in 2020 were mostly in-step with education unions, with Mr Biden and the rest vowing to replace President Donald Trump’s education secretary Betsy DeVos with someone who’s had classroom experience, while increasing spending on education.