The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced it is endorsing Democrat Gwen Graham for governor, her campaign announced Tuesday.

With 39 lodges across the state of Florida, youll find our union members working in manufacturing and aerospace from Pensacola to Miami, Frank Ortis, president of the Florida State Council of Machinists, stated in a news release. We are excited to endorse Gwen Graham and ready to elect her Floridas next governor. Gwen has the experience and leadership Florida needs to create jobs, raise wages and lift up working families.

The Machinists and Aerospace Workers is the second major union to endorse in the race for governor, joining the United Steelworkers, which endorsed Graham in June.

Graham, a former Congresswoman from Tallahassee, faces Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum and Winter Park affordable housing developer Chris King in seeking the Democratic primary nomination to run for governor in 2018.

In Congress, Graham co-sponsored legislation to raise the minimum wage and opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, and authored the bipartisan Middle STEP Act to expand technical education.

For almost twenty years the politicians in Tallahassee have had the wrong priorities for the wrong people. Theyve sold out to special interests and forgot the working men and women who built our state and drive our economy. Graham stated in the news release. We must do the common sense things other states have already done, like raise the minimum wage and pass paid sick leave but those proposals alone arent enough. As governor, I will fight to protect Floridas aerospace industry, create new manufacturing jobs and expand technical education in our schools.

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, hes into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at scott@flordiapolitics.com or scottmichaelpowers@yahoo.com.

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Aerospace workers' union endorses Gwen Graham - Florida Politics (blog)