Trade Works for America Lobbying Freshman Democrats, Buying Ads to Influence Voters
Trade Works for America, one of several coalitions lobbying for ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, already has met with more than 50 Congress member offices, both Republicans and Democrats. But Marie Sanderson, a senior adviser for the coalition and former policy director for the Republican Governors Association, said it's just as important to educate constituents in swing districts and some Republican districts about the benefits of the revised NAFTA.
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Sanderson said that while most Republicans are going to vote for ratification, "Our strategy is to make sure they’re educated and they have the support at home to vote for the agreement."
She said polling shows about 75 percent to 80 percent of voters approve of the revision. "When you explain to voters what this new agreement does for them, does for farmers, does for auto workers, and energy, and tech workers, these Americans are supportive of a deal and want their representative to support it," she said.
After Trade Works for America talks with House staffers about what's in the new NAFTA, they tend to become more supportive, she said. The coalition has been paying member visits for the last two months. "I think the president negotiated a good deal in November, and candidly when you have both labor and business that wanted more out of the deal, you must have struck a good balance," she said. Sanderson said that labor protections are stronger than in NAFTA. "We’re seeing an agreement that was negotiated that when you dig into it is a better agreement than it was before," she said.
Sanderson said that when Trade Works for America talks with Democrats, sometimes they believe that a member's office is working to get to a yes, or the member is ready to vote for the new NAFTA "and they’re trying to get leadership to a yes."
The lobbying group will be watching how the discussions go between Democrats on working groups asking for changes to the agreement and between the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. "As a matter of policy, the Trade Works coalition, we support any action that will … accelerate support for the USMCA," Sanderson said.
"But the reality is we have to stop playing partisan politics," she said, adding that President Donald Trump and USTR Robert Lighthizer "need to get credit" for how they improved NAFTA. The coalition just made an ad buy in the districts of House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (Massachusetts), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (California), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Maryland), Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (South Carolina), Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (New York), Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman Cheri Bustos (Illinois) and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Eshoo has been an advocate for including biologics intellectual property protections in trade deals, which is a distinct minority view in the caucus.
The pharmaceutical, oil and gas, techology, transportation and automotive industries are all funding Trade Works for America, along with agriculture groups. The ad emphasizes Democratic priorities in trade -- higher labor standards and wages, and environmental protections -- and says the USMCA has the highest environmental protection of any trade deal ever inked.
The coalition says it is paying particular attention in scheduling lobbying visits to members in "states, or places, were we lost Republican seats and have a freshman Democrat, who tend to be more moderate in their consideration of policy," she said, and said there's particular attention to the North Carolina, Michigan and Ohio delegations.
Sanderson said she's cautiously optimistic there will be a ratification vote in the next two months, even as she says too much partisanship is influencing the debate. "It deserves to be adopted," she said.