Sen. Ruben Gallego is endorsing a key policy to bolster the power of America’s labor unions as jockeying begins between Democrats eyeing a run at the White House in 2028.
Flirting with his first bid for the presidency, Gallego will announce Wednesday that he’s backing a $20-an-hour minimum wage, a new jobs program, stricter antitrust enforcement and sectoral bargaining — a policy that would cover all workers in the same sector with the same bargaining agreement. The Arizona Democrat said these policies would double the percentage of private-sector workers in a union.
The announcement appears aimed at positioning Gallego somewhere in the middle of the Democratic Party’s ideological factions. While more centrist Democrats have shied away from a $20 minimum wage hike, Gallego has stopped short of the more far-reaching economic policies backed by colleagues to his left, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposed tax on billionaires.