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Rumbling in the Ranks After IAFF Endorses Biden Reflects Burden

By RICHARD STEIER
Posted 5/6/19

One of Joe Biden’s main selling points as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President is his ability to connect with the kind of white working-class voters who deserted Hillary Clinton in 2016 in favor of President Trump, and his corresponding rapport with law-enforcement groups whose rank and files tend to be more conservative than most union members.

And so when the International Association of Fire Fighters gave the former Vice President an early and enthusiastic endorsement April 29, and polls over the next couple of days showed him opening large leads over his closest pursuer in early opinion surveys, Bernie Sanders—as well as the rest of the Democratic field—it seemed a confirmation of the belief that he could rebuild the traditional coalition that had constituted the party’s Blue Wall in presidential elections until Mr. Trump broke through it in Pennsylvania and a cluster of Midwestern states three years ago.

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