By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will champion unions on Monday in Labor Day visits to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania as he tries to ensure Democrats beat the odds and maintain control of the U.S. Congress in Nov. 8 midterm elections.
Biden will address union workers at the Laborfest event Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and members of the United Steelworkers of America in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will be his third visit in a week to Pennsylvania.
The stops will provide Biden with a chance to hone his message on organized labor and urge workers to stay loyal to the Democratic Party, in two states that have races critical to the midterms.
In Wisconsin, Democrats are trying to re-elect Democratic Governor Tony Evers and help the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes, oust Republican Senator Ron Johnson.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats are optimistic that the party’s candidate for Senate, John Fetterman, will defeat the Republican, Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Republicans are favored to win control of the House of Representatives in November and perhaps even the Senate. The opposition party usually gains seats in the first elections after a new president takes over.
But Biden and his team are hopeful that a string of recent legislative successes, and voters’ outrage at the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 ruling that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion, will generate strong turnout among Democrats.
As a result, some pundits see a path for Democrats to hang on to both houses of Congress. Biden in recent weeks has intensified his attack on former President Donald Trump and his far-right loyalists to try to drive up strong Democratic turnout and appeal to mainstream Republicans.
Unions have been increasing in popularity in recent years. A Gallup poll released last week found that 71% of Americans now approve of labor unions, the highest Gallup has recorded on this measure since 1965.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
