According to recent reports, New York City union members are turning away from President Biden in favor of Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The blue-collar workers have cited concerns about prominent issues such as the economy and illegal immigration as reasons for shifting their support to former President Donald Trump.
Trump and Biden have intensely battled for union support, particularly in critical swing states, which could play a significant determining factor in the election. Steamfitters union apprentice Jason Murray appeared on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” where he described the changing political sentiment within his union, which has historically leaned Democrat.
“Just four years ago you could even see that our union, they said to support… Biden, and then immediately the week after he got into office and took over, laid off 10,000 of our workers. Some of my brothers,” Murray told Watters.
He added, “Laid them off. The job was gone. They were out working on the pipeline, [and he] shut down the pipeline. Now, all these guys that had jobs out there working, trying to… provide for their family, they don’t have a job anymore.”
Murray further expressed how union workers are frustrated with the state of the economy, where inflation has significantly driven up the cost of living across the nation. On top of that, he noted how illegal immigration has spiraled out of control under the Biden administration.
“The cost of living just going through the roof. Everything,” Murray stated. “Everything that they promised. They say more work, they say all this, and then all of a sudden, they turn around. All these illegal immigrants coming in.”
The Steamfitters member also called out New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for effectively giving away the jobs of hard-working Americans to illegal immigrants. “Kathy Hochul, she was trying to give our work away,” he continued. “So it’s like you say, Democrats, you’re here for the working man, yet here you’re trying to give our jobs away to people that don’t even have legal status here yet?”
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Former President Trump has sought to capitalize on this newfound support from New Yorkers as more people wake up to the failures of the Biden administration. Trump has even indicated that he will “make a play” for the historically blue state to flip it red. Last week, Trump visited a construction site in New York City, where he was met with a cheering crowd of supporters.
“We’re very close in New York, I understand, and we’re leading in the country by a lot,” he said. “A poll just came out a little while ago, as you saw yesterday, that we were up in every swing state and up by a lot in every swing state, so, I think we’re going to do very well, and we’re going to make a play for New York.”
Murray addressed Trump’s visit, explaining how powerful it was. “It’s a great feeling,” he said. “Our business manager, who was on TV, he reached out to every single presidential candidate to see if they wanted to address our membership, and he got a response directly from Trump, directly from RFK.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.