Mayor Martin J. Walsh is expected to throw his backing today behind attorney general candidate Warren Tolman, as the hotly contested race inches toward the primary.
Walsh is set to make the endorsement — his first in a statewide race — at a campaign stop today with Tolman, who has largely polled neck-and-neck with his opponent, Maura Healey, but has pulled union support thanks in large part to his brother, Steve Tolman, who heads the state’s AFL-CIO.
“Which mayor was it again? I’ve heard of him,” Warren Tolman said coyly to a question of getting Walsh’s backing. “I love Marty Walsh. I think he’s just what this city needs. If he’s ready to come aboard, then it would obviously be a lot of wind in our sails. I’d be fired up for that. And I am fired up.”
Walsh would only say that reporters would find out today who he’s endorsing. He has declined to make an endorsement in the three-way Democratic gubernatorial primary.
The mayor noted Healey has carved out her own corner of labor backing, including from Teamsters Local 25 and “some locals inside the hall.”
But the power of the AFL-CIO’s support was on clear display yesterday for Warren Tolman, who took the stage to address the crowd at the Greater Boston Labor Council’s annual Labor Day breakfast. The banquet room was littered with Tolman campaign signs, including three large banners draped from the balconies facing the main entrance.
Healey, who worked the room but didn’t make a speech, said both her parents were union teachers and that she will “cede nothing when it comes to the union vote.”
“As I go across the state and I’m talking to union members, I feel great support. I think they see me as someone who is a fighter, who is going to fight for them and their families, and advance economic and social justice,” Healey said. “Those are labor values. Those are my values.”