On Oct. 23, less than two weeks before Election Day, North America's Building Trades Unions endorsed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden for president. As the presidential election vote count dragged on past Nov. 3—prior to Biden being elected president Nov. 7—building trades leaders acknowledged that their members had not formed a solid blue bloc for the Democratic president-elect.
“We try to educate our members … how they vote is up to them,” said Chris Geronimos, business manager of District Council 57 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades in Carnegie, Pa. Although the district council officially backed the former vice president against President Donald Trump. “I’m sure we had a mixture of members who supported Biden, and a certain percentage that didn’t.”