Union hears Dems talk infrastructure future
Klobuchar, Booker address LV convention
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker brought their 2020 presidential bids to the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades’ annual convention in Las Vegas on Wednesday, with Klobuchar addressing the union leaders in person and Booker appearing remotely from his home in Newark.
Klobuchar spent much of her 30-minute speech promoting infrastructure expansion paid for by rolling back tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations — an expected hit with a union crowd.
“(Trump) made a lot of promises on what he was going to do for your union … and I think one of your jobs and my job is to make it very clear that so much of what he’s done is helping the richest people and not helping the working people,” she said.
In an interview with the Review-journal, Klobuchar said she is being cautious with her $7 million war chest as her more affluent competitors ramp up Nevada staffing but said she plans to announce statewide hires soon.
She is using much of her media time this week to push a gun-control bill that would ban unmarried domestic abusers and stalkers from owning guns, noting that about half of all mass shooters — including the recent shooter in Dayton, Ohio — kill a female romantic partner or family member during their sprees.
Booker said his hometown is enjoying “the biggest period of economic development in 60 years” in part because of expansive building projects with union labor begun while Booker was serving as mayor. He said hopes to replicate that on a national level.
“You are critical to the vision of America,” Booker told the union crowd. “This idea that we talk about — this idea of a more perfect union. It is important to understand that unions have been critical to the American dream for a long time.”
Booker mostly stuck to his typical campaign speech, but he received some applause for pledging to focus on apprenticeships, noting that only about 35 percent of Americans graduate from four-year colleges.
Meanwhile, Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, meeting Wednesday with Nevada Democrats and progressive activists in Las Vegas, said she plans to put a voter protection team and phone hotline in the Silver State ahead of the 2020 election.
Abrams, who championed voter rights during her unsuccessful 2018 run for Georgia governor, said Nevada is one of 20 states “that decide the direction of our nation.” Elsewhere on the campaign trail:
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will drop out of the Democratic presidential primary on Thursday, according to a Democrat close to him who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Hickenlooper, 67, is not expected to announce a decision on whether he will run for Senate in Colorado, though he has been discussing the possibility with advisers.
Beto O’rourke will formally rejoin the presidential race on Thursday, resuming a campaign that has been suspended for nearly two weeks with what he promises will be a “major address to the nation” from his hometown of El Paso, Texas, where a mass shooting killed 22 people.
Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is coming to Maine for a campaign event later this month. The South Bend, Indiana, mayor is scheduled to appear at a Portland fundraiser on Aug. 22.
Contact Rory Appleton at rappleton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0276. Follow @Rorydoesphonics on Twitter.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.