Biden, Sanders, Warren, and Yang to boycott Democratic debate over union strike


Next week's Democratic debate could lose its frontrunners.
Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles is currently facing a union boycott against its food service provider Sodexo — the two sides have been in talks for a deal since March. And with the Dec. 19 debate scheduled to take place at Loyola Marymount, four candidates, including three at the top of the polls, say they won't be there.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was the first candidate to recognize the conflict at Loyola Marymount, tweeting Friday that he would not cross the Unite Here Local 11 picket line organized against Sodexo.
Subscribe to 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.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) soon tweeted that she also wouldn't cross the union's picket line "even if it means missing the debate." Andrew Yang, the underdog tech entrepreneur who was the last candidate to make the stage, said the same, and then former Vice President Joe Biden joined in. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, who didn't make this Democratic debate, then called on the remaining candidates to drop as well.
The Democratic National Committee has already faced a union challenge to this debate, deciding in early November to pull it from UCLA over the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees' three-year boycott on speakers at the school. It announced it was moving to Loyola Marymount a few days later.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from