Las Vegas casino unions preparing to take on Trump again

It is the Democrats' not-so-secret weapon in Nevada -- a vast army of maids, cooks and bartenders that helped deliver this razor-tight swing state for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in 2016 and 2020.

Now ahead of November's election, the Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 mainly Las Vegas-based hotel and casino workers, is preparing to mobilize its formidable network against Donald Trump for a third time.

"By election day, we'll have 500 union members -- men and women that are normally cleaning rooms in hotels, or cooking food, or serving drinks -- out full-time, knocking on doors, registering folks to vote, taking folks to the polls," said the union's secretary-treasurer, Ted Pappageorge.

"Getting out the vote. There's no other way to win."

Nevada has become a key battleground in US presidential elections.

Democratic candidates have flocked in particular to Las Vegas, home to three-quarters of the sprawling desert state's population.

Clinton was a frequent visitor in 2016, courting hotel workers and union members in casino back rooms and employee cafeterias. It was one of the few swing states she won.

Biden prevailed in another tight race four years later. He and Vice-President Kamala Harris have recently made time to march on picket lines and celebrate hard-fought new contracts with union members.

In his book "Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor," author Steven Greenhouse calls the Culinary Union a "political juggernaut that has gone far in turning Nevada from red to blue."

"We play a pretty big role," agreed Pappageorge. "But it's a special role."

That clout comes not just from being Nevada's biggest union, with a diverse membership that is 60 percent Latino and 55 percent female, but also its political canvassing machine.

In 2022, when Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was re-elected by fewer than 8,000 votes, the Culinary Union said its canvassers knocked on more than a million doors, speaking with 175,000 voters in a state home to three million people, the union says.

This year, the union will raise funds to pay hundreds of union canvassers to take leave from their jobs and pound the streets again, said Pappageorge.

"They sign up for three to six months during the election year. They walk the neighborhoods every day, 10 hours a day, in 110 degrees, getting chased by dogs and all sorts of other things," he said.

"Workers talking to workers. That's how we move the working class vote in Nevada."

- 'Turnout' -

The Culinary Union has tripled in size since the late 1980s.

Guild-negotiated wage rises have afforded Nevada hospitality workers middle-class lifestyles not seen in much of the US.

For instance, in November the union struck deals with casino giants MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts, taking average wages from $26 to $35 an hour.

The union has become more politically focused. Each election it identifies candidates with pro-union policies, and mobilizes voters to tip the balance.

While it has backed Republicans in some past races, these days it is squarely behind Biden, who Pappageorge calls "the best president for working class people and families and unions in my lifetime."

The mobilization focuses on cities like Las Vegas and Reno, blue union-dominated bastions in a state containing vast, conservative, rural counties.

Urban voters are younger and ethnically diverse -- demographics less likely to vote.

"Turnout is everything in Nevada," said Pappageorge. "That's where the Culinary Union comes in."

- 'Closer' -

Yet this year, simply getting traditional voters out may not be enough.

Trump is narrowly leading most Nevada polls.

Independents outnumber Democrats in the state, for the first time.

And Latino and Black voters -- who overwhelmingly backed Biden in 2020 -- are less reliably anti-Trump.

"It's early. We're not too worried about that," said Pappageorge.

Latino working class voters are "not much different than white working class voters," he said.

"Both are concerned about a woman's right to choose. They want law and order on the border, but they want compassion."

Gripes over Biden's management of the economy are perhaps the most common refrain.

Nevada has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates. The cost of living and housing prices have ballooned.

Pappageorge blames Trump's early mishandling of the pandemic, which completely shut the Las Vegas Strip's world-famous casinos, and price-gouging corporations.

But with all these factors combined, "it's going to be even closer" than previous elections, Pappageorge predicted.

"There's a lot at stake," he said. "Nevada matters."

Cocksuckers!!!

Deportations would go a long way towards turning Nevada red again……

So I should stop tipping while there?

The California Exodus has dismantled Nevada in less than a decade. It's unfortunate these clowns refuse to see that the party they voted for is what eventually forced them to leave their "paradise" of California. It's an incurable hubris and most repeat it wherever they flee to.

well they took GD's classic advice to move to a free state, after all

Unfortunately the lib CA clowns far outnumber the conservatives leaving the state. I'm sometimes convinced that the CA gov has purposely tanked its state to FORCE its voters to other states and export its failed ideology.

“Poors with menial jobs for Joe Biden!”

Remember when these fuckers voted for Steve Sizlack and he shut down Vegas and ruined their lives?


Stupid cocksuckers will vote for the same idiots again.


This is why we need a state based electoral college for presidential elections, as well as gubernatorial elections and frankly, we need to break up the unions permanently. Fuck these people.

Joke is on the Democrats.  The toilet brush brigade won’t be knocking on doors.  They will be laughing about getting a free paid day off to go get boozed up at PT’s Pub playing video poker.and keno.

It was easy for them to do so when you have the losers of a state based GOP like Chairmen McDonald and a brainless Governor and state assembly that wastes its chances to secure the state and then give it all away.

Remember, nothing helps far left Democrats like moderate Republicans.

Yup! No argument from me there. I don't expect NV to turn red this year especially with state Democrats fortifying the mail-in ballot system.

I guess they're too stupid to understand why the cost of living is so high in vegas. the average union worker makes $35 an hour.
Get a clue.

My favorite part involves dogs chasing them.



"They sign up for three to six months during the election year. They walk the neighborhoods every day, 10 hours a day, in 110 degrees, getting chased by dogs and all sorts of other things," he said.

Vegas was better when the mob ran it.

Trump shut down the casinos during the pandemic? Huh. Didn't know that.

Lol. When is the last time Clark County went red?

Nevada is a red state with a huge blue county that runs things.

It’s not because of the fucking casino maids against trump.

Apparently so.

Another cancerous union.

Their socialist utopia didn't work where growing things is VERY easy and the weather is perfect all year.

Surely it'll work in the Mohave/Great Basin deserts.

The illegal vote strikes again!

The only problem with that theory is that from its inception hardly anyone is born and raised in Las Vegas.  It’s probably the most transient town in America.  There’s a reason Vegas has a reputation of being the place for new beginnings and last stands.   Literally almost everyone you meet is from somewhere else.   It’s always been that way.

Boycott Vegas!

How do you sell Pedopeter as a viable POTUS?  High taxes, high inflation, wars all over, illegals by the millions, high crime, viewed as a joke by the world, etc.

Yes, another reason not to go there.

Done.

I hate unions so freaking bad

FUCK UNIONS.

If they've ever done any good, they've erased that with over a century of progressive bullshit all across the nation.

I'll have to remember that when I go to the convention next time and stay in a holiday inn express off the strip.

[rolf2]

Nevada loves California. The loser gamblers keep the lights on there.

The union fuck in the article is named Pappageorge.  I immediately remembered this:

Attached File

He's from Yuma, Az. He works in software there.

The more illegals Biden lets in, the less companies can pay employees.  Don't like your low pay and no benefits?  I'll just get rid of you and hire the next illega.

seiu did the same shit for obama

fuck the unions

Fuck them, fuck Joe Bidet, and fuck you if you vote/voted for the corrupt POS.

They just got abortion on the ballot also.  That isn't going to help.  But I'm not sure it will be a drag either.    I don't blame Dems for doing it.  Repubs would do the same thing if they could use something to drive their voters to the polls.  I think they need to put the boys in girls sports thing on the ballot.

Easy, just out cheat them, you got 10,000 votes? Fuck you we found 40,000!

They should be sent back to CA! I told off one of these fuckers as I chased him out of parklot of a Smiths.

“If you don’t stop we will make it easier and faster for us to abort our own kids and thus future voters!”-Dems

“Oh noes!”-Cuckservatives

“Do a flip!”-Dagoth-Ur

You assume these people understand cause and effect why again?

Last stands?

@Square66

No our shitbag from Governor did.

Lots of people drift into Vegas with substance abuse problems, gambling addictions, etc.   It usually ends badly, as in their last stand before a coffin or prison.

It couldn't be all the illegals/ barely legals that flocked there and found employment in casinos and hotels and subsequently joined the union, could it?

Bet the polls will stick with the smell of weed in Nevada.

Someone should bring Trump a platinum chip.

They will all be replaced by the newcomers soon enough

Vegas was better when casinos were owned by guys like Trump.


I can't believe I typed that cause I am not a fan of his "style" but in this matter, I typed the truth.

You're lucky Californians are moving to that radioactive shithole and cleaning up and bringing in lots of $$$ to the state.

How was the NV GOP suppose to "secure the state" when it has only controlled all branches of government once in the last 20 years?  That was with a 1 vote majority in the Senate.

What has Michael McDonald done that you disagree with?

Sure you did.