Could intra-party turmoil sabotage the Democrats' turnout operation?
The Democratic Party's grand plan to defeat Donald Trump could be upended by a rift forming within the party. The New York Times reports that "the two pillars of the Democratic coalition," labor unions and environmentalists, are currently at odds over a recent joint effort by some parts of the labor movement and wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer to raise $50 million as part of a voter turnout operation. The split in the movement puts the fundraising efforts at risk, which in turn could negatively affect the effort to turn out Hillary Clinton voters in the fall.
While both factions can likely get behind tens of millions of dollars being raised for the Democrats, construction unions are leery about partnering up with climate-change activists. Steyer has previously opposed oil and gas projects, like the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which have the potential to create lots of jobs in the construction industry. In a letter sent out Monday, presidents of the nation's seven biggest construction unions threatened to boycott the get-out-the-vote effort.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party's chance of winning the blue collar vote is already threatened by the Republican Party's increasingly strong hold on the demographic, thanks to Trump. This rift could make the battle for those votes that much harder.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Read the full story on the letter — and how this fight could shape the battle against Trump — over at The New York Times.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The most anticipated movies of 2026The Week Recommends If the trailers are anything to go by, film buffs are in for a treat
-
The biggest viral moments of 2025In the Spotlight From the Coldplay concert kiss cam to a celebrity space mission, these are some of the craziest, and most unexpected, things to happen this year
-
Environment breakthroughs of 2025In Depth Progress was made this year on carbon dioxide tracking, food waste upcycling, sodium batteries, microplastic monitoring and green concrete
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history