The Strickland campaign sent out an email on Friday with the headline, “Ohio Labor Leaders Double Down on Support for Strickland for US Senate, Explain Why Portman is Opposed by Vast Majority of State Labor Unions”.
Advertisement
Burga said he was “not picking up” any sense of a loss of union support for Strickland or dissent against union efforts to promote his election.
“On behalf of over 15,000 OH workers, we are proud to endorse Rob Portman and look forward to working with him to improve Ohio’s infrastructure and keep our state moving forward”, Richard Dalton, the IUOE Local 18 business manager, said in a statement.
“Ted Strickland’s floundering campaign has national Democrats and their allies so anxious that he’s resorted to rolling out a year-old endorsement in an attempt to distract from the fact Ted just lost out on endorsements from more than 100,000 union members who are now supporting Rob”, Michawn Rich, spokeswoman for the Portman campaign, said in a released statement. Portman rolls out a labor endorsement from a union that had backed his Democratic rival Ted Strickland amid growing concerns among Democrats that Strickland is running a lackluster campaign and their chances of flipping the OH seat could be slipped away. Portman says the groups like what he has to say about job development and regulations.
FILE – In this June 21, 2016, file photo, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Ohio, speaks in Columbus, Ohio.
The Ohio Conference of Teamsters, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) of Ohio, and the United Mine Workers of America have also announced support for Portman.
Nonetheless it’s unusual for a Republican candidate to snatch labor union endorsements from a Democrat the way Portman has done, and reinforces the view among Republicans that Portman is well-positioned to hang on in this unusual election year.
Advertisement
“Rob Portman is the hardest working man on the campaign trail”. Rob Portman in their heated and tight race in Ohio.
