Laborers’ International Union of North America Endorses Sam Liccardo for Congress
Liccardo Is A “Champion For Working Americans”
SAN JOSE, CA — Today, the Laborer’s International Union of North America announced their endorsement of former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. LiUNA is home to half a million construction and energy workers, and more than 70,000 public employees. This announcement comes after a new poll showing Liccardo with a 12% lead in the two-candidate race to replace the retiring Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.
“We’re thrilled to endorse Sam Liccardo for Congress,” Enrique Arguello, Secretary-Treasurer for LiUNA Local 270 said. “Time and time again, Sam has demonstrated his commitment to union workers. As mayor of the Bay Area’s biggest city Sam has had to make tough calls, but he has always been accessible to us, and we look forward to working with him in Congress. He is truly a champion for working Americans.”
As mayor of San Jose, Liccardo worked with unions to fix a broken pension system, worked with an understaffed police department to recruit over 200 officers, raised the minimum wage, and created job training programs for teenagers in San Jose’s low-income neighborhoods.
“I’m honored to have LiUNA’s support in my campaign,” Liccardo said. “LiUNA members and union workers literally built this country, and have been tremendous partners in our efforts to tackle our housing crisis and rebuild our infrastructure. I’m proud to stand with our unions and support the imperative of good wages, apprenticeship programs, worker protections, and the right to organize.”
Liccardo is endorsed by the NorCal Carpenters Union, California State Controller Malia Cohen, U.S. Representatives Nanette Barragan, Tony Cárdenas, Lou Correa, Robert Garcia, Linda Sanchez, and Scott Peters, Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and more than100 local elected officials and community leaders. In the primary election, he was endorsed by the Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle. A full endorsement list can be seen here.
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About Sam Liccardo
Sam Liccardo is running for Congress to focus Washington on the big issues like homelessness, climate change, reproductive rights, and the punishing cost of living. To a Congress that has been called the least productive in decades, Liccardo says “Let’s Get it Done!” on the problems that matter most to the Peninsula, Silicon Valley, and the Coastside.
As Mayor of San José, the Bay Area’s largest city, Liccardo’s innovative efforts to confront homelessness include pioneering the conversion of motels to housing in 2016, four years prior to California adopting it as a statewide model. He piloted the development of quick-build prefabricated housing communities that were constructed at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional apartments, helping thousands come off the streets. Liccardo also launched a successful program that employs unhoused residents cleaning the city in exchange for housing and pay (“San José Bridge”). Though San José long struggled with growing homelessness, it became one of the very few California cities to reduce street homelessness in Liccardo’s final year in office, 2022.
Under Liccardo, San José resolved chronic deficits, reduced city debt, and improved its credit rating, particularly through a 2016 ballot measure that saved taxpayers $3 billion over three decades. He took on the gun lobby and crafted a first-in-the-nation requirement for gun owners to pay annual fees to support violence-prevention programs and to purchase liability insurance. He launched San José Clean Energy for the city’s one million residents which now procures 95% of its electricity from renewable and GHG-free sources. Liccardo also led a series of successful ballot measures to preserve open space and hillsides, rebuild city streets and other infrastructure, and provide hundreds of millions in funding for housing affordable to vital workers such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers. Liccardo led efforts to expand BART and was part of the regional coalition that supported the successful efforts to electrify Caltrain.
Prior to his service in elected office, Liccardo prosecuted felony crimes of sexual assault and child exploitation in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, and also served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of California. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Georgetown University. His published works have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other national publications. He and his wife, Jessica García-Kohl, live in San José.
About California’s 16th Congressional District
California’s 16th is an open Congressional District that covers parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, home to Silicon Valley. The district covers all or part of the cities of Menlo Park, Los Altos, Woodside, Pacifica, Half Moon Bay, Atherton, Pescadero, Portola Valley, Campbell, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Saratoga and Stanford.