Unions Show Their Force In Pennsylvania District Won By Trump

WAYNESBURG, Pa. Over 200 coal miners, family members and local activists crowded into a hall at the Greene County fairgrounds Sunday afternoon in Pennsylvanias rural southwest corner.

The attendees, many of them retirees in their 60s and 70s clad in the United Mine Workers of Americas signature camouflage-patterned regalia, were there for one last get-out-the-vote rally for Democrat Conor Lamb.

But the raucous atmosphere at the rally felt more like a church revival service than a political gathering. And while everyone present was there to support Lamb, the main event was Cecil Roberts, the charismatic preacher and president of the UMWA labor union.

After ascending the stage to chants of U-M-W-A, Roberts delivered a nearly 30-minute sermon in which he managed to portray a vote for Lamb in Tuesdays special election as a sacred and patriotic act in keeping with the godly social justice tradition of Moses, Gandhi, UMWA founder John Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr. and the recently victorious West Virginia teachers strike .

Theres energy...and then theres UMWA Pres Cecil Roberts at a Conor Lamb rally. #PA18 pic.twitter.com/2LAw6STWxu

Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) March 11, 2018","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Vaughn Hillyard","author_url":"https://twitter.com/VaughnHillyard","cache_age":86400,"description":"Theres energy...and then theres UMWA Pres Cecil Roberts at a Conor Lamb rally. #PA18 pic.twitter.com/2LAw6STWxu Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) March 11, 2018\n\n","provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":675,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/972911198910889986/pu/img/5-HPRmXovtRP3NXa.jpg","thumbnail_width":1200,"title":"Vaughn Hillyard on 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Theres energy...and then theres UMWA Pres Cecil Roberts at a Conor Lamb rally. #PA18 pic.twitter.com/2LAw6STWxu
Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) March 11, 2018

Were God-fearing folks down here in these coal fields, Roberts roared in his West Virginia twang. I believe in God and so do you and we dont apologize to anybody for that.

The bible tells us some day were all gonna be judged by how we treat the least of these, and the labor movement and the Democratic Party are about treating the least with respect and lifting them up, he continued, to loud applause and affirmative shouts of thats right from attendees.

To hear Roberts tell it, the struggles of organized labor reflect a deep spiritual and patriotic fervor a fervor that Lamb shares.

It just excites me when people run up to me with a camera and say, well, Tell me what kind of person Conor is. We dont know each other personally, but let me tell ya, I know what hes about, he intoned in his breathy preachers cadence.

Let me try to explains [sic] to ya what kind of folks we are and what kind of Democrat Conor is. Hes a God-fearing, union-supporting, gun-owning, job-protecting, pension-defending, Social Security-believing, health care-greeting and sending-drug-dealers-to-jail Democrat! he bellowed in conclusion as the audience rose to their feet and broke out in chants of CON-OR, CON-OR.