2020 Public Service Forum is Largest Candidate Event in AFSCME History

With former Vice President Joe Biden confirming his participation on Tuesday, the AFSCME-sponsored presidential candidate forum on Aug. 3 will be the biggest event of its kind in our union’s history.

A total of 18 presidential candidates will be participating in the 2020 Public Service Forum in Las Vegas. AFSCME members will have the opportunity to learn most presidential candidates’ plans to fight for working families, strengthen their ability to stand together in strong unions and unrig a system that favors the wealthy and the powerful.

In addition to Biden, the lineup of candidates includes Sen. Cory Booker, Gov. Steve Bullock, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Rep. John Delaney, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sen. Kamala Harris, Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Seth Moulton, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Rep. Tim Ryan, Sen. Bernie Sanders, business leader and philanthropist Tom Steyer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and author Marianne Williamson. The forum comes after the second Democratic primary debate, which will be held July 30-31.

The 2020 Public Services Forum will be held at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the audience will be made up of AFSCME members from Nevada and surrounding states, who’ll ask questions of the candidates in person and via videotape. All AFSCME members, regardless of where they live, will also have the chance to submit either written or video-recorded questions to candidates, from which several questions will be chosen to be presented to candidates.

Amanda Terkel of HuffPost and Jon Ralston of The Nevada Independent will moderate the daylong event, which you will be able to watch live at publicserviceforum.com.

As attacks on workers and their freedoms steadily continue, the 2020 election represents a crucial turning point, an opportunity to elect a candidate who’ll advance a substantive, specific vision for empowering workers and leveling an uneven playing field.

“AFSCME members want to hear candidates discuss their specific plans to invest in public services and to give working people a seat at the table by making it easier to join a union,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a statement. “Candidates should lay out a vision for unrigging the rules of our economy and restoring power to working people.”