Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly has piled up one union endorsement after another in her bid for the party’s nomination for governor.
The American Federation of Teachers. Service Employees International. The Locomotive Engineers and Trainman. United Steelworkers. And more.
But there’s a big one that she’s not going to collect – at least in the primary.
The Kansas State AFL-CIO, which represents 85,000 workers from 300 unions throughout Kansas, decided recently not to endorse in the Democratic primary.
“The election looks close. I don’t know if we’ve seen enough polling,” said Andy Sanchez, executive secretary-treasurer of the Kansas State AFL-CIO.
“We think the top three are all good candidates and would make a respectable governor,” Sanchez said. “We like Laura Kelly. We like Josh Svaty. And we like Carl Brewer.”
The AFL-CIO also didn’t endorse in the Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District where labor lawyer Brent Welder is among the six candidates running. It also didn’t endorse in the 4th District primary where James Thompson and Laura Lombard are running.
Union endorsements can play a key role in a Democratic primary, not only because of money but also because they can mobilize support for a candidate.
With about 100,000 members in Kansas, labor unions represent a key voting bloc that can help swing the election.
Kelly has traditionally drawn strong support from unions in past races for the Kansas senate and, to an extent, in the governor’s race.
However, the state’s largest teachers’ union – the Kansas National Education Association – also backed off endorsing in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. The KNEA said that all three candidates would be good for public education.
The Kelly campaign declined comment. The Brewer campaign could not be reached for comment for this story.
The Svaty campaign called the decisions by the KNEA and the AFL-CIO to stay out of the primary an indication the race is still in play.
“There was tremendous pressure put on both those groups to endorse Sen. Kelly,” Svaty spokesman Mike Swenson said.
“And they chose to wait for the voters to decide. It speaks volumes to the fact these key Democratic groups understand there is a real race here.”
Washburn political scientist Bob Beatty suggested that Brewer’s union background – he was a member of the machinists’ union and a shop steward – would have made it hard for the AFL-CIO to choose in the primary.
“By sitting it out, it probably hurts Brewer a bit. That would be a resource he could have used,” Beatty said. “It would be a rough thing for the AFL-CIO to endorse Svaty or Kelly and not Brewer given his background.”
