UMW Endorse Sparks, Rescind Co-endorsement

The United Mine Workers of America announced Tuesday that they have voted unanimously to endorse Ron Sparks for governor in the Democratic primary.

The group, which had apparently endorsed both Artur Davis and Sparks, also voted to rescind that co-endorsement at the same meeting.

“As many of you know we had given our endorsement to Ron Sparks and Artur Davis,” said Daryl Dewberry, International Vice President of the United Mine Workers of America, District 20, in a press release from the Sparks campaign. “We now believe Ron Sparks is the best candidate to represent the interests of working men and women in Alabama. He will not turn his back on working people. He will not betray us. He has worked hard for us in the past and he will work hard for us in the future.”


“We feel like Davis is abandoning his base and he is going against the people in his district," Dewberry went on to write in the release. "We didn't leave Artur Davis. Artur Davis left us.”

Sparks, who is fresh of an endorsement from the United Auto Workers, said he welcomed the announcement and said it adds even more momentum to his campaign.

“Alabama working people are going to elect the next governor of Alabama, you wait and see. They want and they need a governor who will protect their interest, not the special interests, and I will be that governor,” Sparks said in the press release. “The United Mine Workers of America is a critical endorsement for me. I want to reiterate in public what I've said in private. My number-one priority is the interest of the working families of Alabama and they have my word that I will never turn my back on them."

-- posted by Markeshia Ricks