Kerry: 'We Can and Will Win'

At the Democratic Unity dinner in Washington, D.C., in late March, Senator John Kerry spotted CWA President Morton Bahr and gave him a hug.

"I see your people everywhere I go," Kerry told Bahr, thanking him for the thousands of CWA members across the country who are turning out for rallies waving "Kerry for President" signs, volunteering for his campaign and working hard to register people to vote.

"You don't know how proud it makes me feel to have a presidential candidate say that," Bahr said, speaking at CWA's Legislative-Political Conference. "So let's keep it going."

The Massachusetts Democrat clinched the presidential nomination after Super Tuesday on March 2, and told a cheering crowd of union members and other supporters in Washington, D.C., that night, "We can and we will win this election. We will build one America of freedom and fairness for all."

Kerry's main contenders for the Democratic nomination have endorsed him for president and stood with him, hands clasped, on stage at the Unity dinner.

"The real question is this: Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America - people who never served a day overseas in their lives or a guy who served his country honorably and won three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star?" former candidate Howard Dean asked a crowd in Washington state, where he had enormous support and is now urging backers to vote for Kerry.

Dean and the rest of Kerry's former opponents have said whatever disagreements they may have had during the campaign pale in comparison to the stark differences between Democrats and President Bush on jobs, health care, the environment and other issues critical to workers and families.

Kerry has publicly thanked both Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Dean for standing up so forcefully for working families and bringing many discouraged voters back into the process.

Even before Republicans began airing the ads that grossly distort Kerry's voting record, Kerry said he was ready for a tough campaign. "We have no illusions about the Republican attack machine and what our opponents will try to do," he said.

To learn more about Kerry's platform, go to www.johnkerry.org. To find out what CWA members are doing to help the Kerry campaign and other state and local candidates across the country, see the COPE website at www.cwa-cope.org.