Democratic Presidential Candidate Edwards Receives Endorsements From 10 State Chapters Of SEIU

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 17 Oct 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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Presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) has received endorsements from 10 state chapters of the Service Employees International Union, which represents a large number of health care workers, according to an announcement by party officials on Monday, the AP/Boston Herald reports. SEIU officials earlier this month announced that the union will not endorse a presidential candidate and will allow state chapters to make individual endorsements. After state chapters endorse a presidential candidate, SEIU members from those states cannot campaign in states in which chapters have endorsed a different candidate.

Edwards received endorsements from state chapters that represent about 930,000 SEIU members in California, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Washington state and West Virginia (Glover, AP/Boston Herald, 10/15). According to leaders of the state chapters, they decided to endorse Edwards in part because of his proposal to require all U.S. residents to be covered by health insurance (Jordan, Des Moines Register, 10/16).

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) received endorsements from state chapters that represent about 170,000 SEIU members in Illinois and Indiana. Tom Balanoff, president of the SEIU Illinois State Council, said that the state chapters decided to endorse Obama because of his proposal to expand access to affordable health care and protect the rights of workers (AP/Boston Herald, 10/15).

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