SEIU Endorses Obama

The expected finally happened: today, the 1.9 million strong Service Employees International Union endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President. According to the AP, union president Andy Stern said,

There has never been a fight in Illinois or a fight in the nation where our members have not asked Barack Obama for assistance and he has not done everything he could to help us.

Stern also said,

Our members and leaders really feel that America needs profound change and something that engages the next generation.

This endorsement follows by one day the endorsement of Senator Obama by the 1.3 million members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

This endorsement is important, according to the SEIU press release, because:

SEIU members are supporting Obama with an aggressive political effort. With more than 150,000 members in the upcoming primary states, including Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas, SEIU will mobilize thousands to go door-to-door, work the phones, and will send mail about their support for Obama. SEIU also will have a substantial presence on television and radio in every critical state.

According to the AP,

Stern said the union waited this long to endorse a candidate because there was a lot of support for John Edwards and "we didn't want to look like we were bouncing between candidates." The Obama endorsement came after careful consideration, he said, and polling of the membership.

But it has been reported elsewhere that SEIU would have endorsed presidential-hopeful John Edwards last October but there was not quite enough support for the candidate, possibly because SEIU's large memberships in Illinois and New York backed Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, respectively. Instead, the national organization asked locals to come together and endorse by state.

As a result, SEIU's endorsement represents a significant change from their previous position, and members may now throw themselves into the primaries with renewed enthusiasm. It will be interesting to see just how much of an effect this has on the upcoming primaries in Texas and Ohio.