At Tonight’s Democratic Debate, Look for a Game of ‘Let’s Pick on Pete Buttigieg’
For the sixth time in half a year, a winnowing field of Democratic hopefuls will take to the stage for a presidential primary debate. If November’s snoozefest could best be described as the debate no one in America wanted, December’s gathering at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles might be called the debate that almost didn’t happen.
Last week, all seven qualifying Democrats – led by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren – pledged to boycott tonight’s debate due to a deteriorating labor dispute between campus food service giant Sodexo and the service union workers of UNITE HERE Local 11. The union “is fighting for better wages and benefits – and I stand with them,” tweeted Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Bernie Sanders and the rest of the field quickly followed with a pledge not to cross the picket line.
The standoff caused heartburn in Washington for Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, who faced the possibility of an embarrassing rift between Democrats and key allies in the labor movement. Fortunately for Perez and the subset of Americans who enjoy the peculiar masochism of watching every moment of America’s unending 2020 presidential contest, Sodexo and UNITED HERE Local 11 reached a tentative agreement just days before the debate.