President Barack Obama won the endorsement Tuesday of the AFL-CIO, the union federation that has clashed with the president in the past but is poised to now spend millions of dollars on his re-election.
"Although the labor movement has sometimes differed with the president and often pushed his administration to do more and do it faster, we have never doubted his commitment to working families," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.
He praised Obama for the 2009 stimulus, comprehensive health care reform and financial regulation.
The union federation has also disagreed with the president on his handling of trade deals and jobs. But it had nowhere else to go, given the current Republican field, with whom members disagree on even more issues. In the endorsement statement, Trumka wrote that Republican candidates had "pledged to uphold the special privileges of Wall Street and the 1%," which could drown out "the voices of working people in America."
Conservatives quickly responded by mocking the endorsement, alluding to the idea of crony capitalism between labor and the White House.
"[P]ayoff worked, AFLCIO endorses Obama," Republican National Committee Spokesman Sean Spicer tweeted.