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Biden and Beto take different approaches

Posted at 3:55 PM, Apr 29, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-29 15:55:15-04

Democratic Presidential candidates are taking different paths to try to break out of a crowded field. Former Vice President Joe Biden is holding his first rally at a union hall in Pittsburgh in an effort to appeal to working class voters, many of whom voted for President Trump in 2016. Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016 and Democrats are eager to put it back in their win column.

Biden has long been a union supporter and sparred with the President on Twitter over union support. The President complained about Biden receiving the endorsement of a national firefighters’ union. “The Dues Sucking firefighters’ leadership will always support Democrats, even though the membership want me,” the President Tweeted. Biden responded on Twitter, writing “I’m sick of this President badmouthing unions,” he wrote and credited unions with building the middle class. Biden will spend the next two days in Iowa, which holds 2020’s first caucuses.

While Biden is holding a traditional rally, one of his opponents is rolling out a major policy initiative. Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke called for spending $5 trillion over the next ten years to combat climate change. O’Rourke called climate change “the greatest threat we face.” His goal is to neutralize carbon emissions by the middle of the century. O’Rourke called on massive spending by both the government and private industry. Other democrats have endorsed a so-called “Green new Deal,” as set of sweeping proposals to fight climate change.

On his campaign website O’Rourke wrote “The stakes are clear: We are living in a transformed reality., where our longstanding inaction has not only impacted our climate but led to a growing emergency that has already started to sap our economic prosperity and public health—worsening inequality and threatening our safety and security