The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest union, officially endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton yesterday. The Association did this despite the fact that tens of thousands of members are outraged that the Association was making an early endorsement without even consulting its members.
The NEA leadership stated it wanted to identify the potential winner early on in order to “play a significant role in the next administration’s conversation and decision-making about public education.” What is more telling, however, is why the leadership settled on Clinton:
Clinton is the best positioned candidate to win both the Democratic primary and general election. She has unmatched organizational strength, ground game, and fundraising ability to defeat the candidate of the Koch brothers.
In other words, the NEA decided to endorse Hillary now because it believes she is the “safe” choice to win the White House next year.
In a letter to NEA members, a group of teachers from four states wrote:
More than 30,000 NEA members have shown support for Sen. Bernie Sanders to be our next president through his campaign website or various social media sites…an early endorsement for Clinton would be based only on advocacy by national and state leaders without membership input.
In typical Bernie Sanders demeanor, he did not attack the NEA or Hillary Clinton. Instead, he stated:
I am proud to have the support of many hundreds of thousands of members of the National Education Association and trade unionists all across America. We are going to win this nomination and the general election because of support from grassroots Americans. We are on track to do just that.
Ed Schultz wasn’t near as kind to the NEA, calling their decision total “bullsh*t”:
