Congrats to Leslie Byrne on AFSCME's Endorsement!

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, is one of the largest public employee unions. They have a history of embracing progressive political causes and candidates. Following that longstanding tradition, they unanimously endorsed Leslie Byrne in her bid for Congress.

I have a somewhat personal connection to AFSCME. The father of a close friend of mine, the late Jerry Wurf, was president of AFSCME until 1980. I spent many hours listening to Susan Wurf's stories about growing up the daughter of one of the most respected labor leaders of the 20th Century. Her father also championed the Civil Rights movement as one of the founding members of the New York state chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, In addition, he was a close associate of Martin Luther King. In fact, King was attending the AFSCME sanitation workers' strike in Memphis in 1968 when he was assasinated. Jerry Wurf later issued the following statement about that:

"Let us never forget that Martin Luther King, on a mission for us, was killed in this city. He helped bring us this victory,"

I am proud to be supporting a candidate who has won the endorsement of one of the most progressive labor unions, one that has consistently stood up for the rights and dignity of all workers.

Congratulations Leslie!