AFL-CIO Union Endorsement

Press Release

First Congressional District candidate Wendy Rosen was officially endorsed Saturday by the Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO during the Dorchester Democratic Club's annual crab feast.

While accepting the endorsement, Rosen discussed the legislative record of incumbent U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.-1st, noting that he has sponsored six bills during his year and a half in office, four of which have to do with extending and modifying the temporary suspension of tariffs on various kinds of shoes.

"I want to strengthen tariffs," Rosen said, to encourage more sales of American-made products. "I do not want to make them go away."

Rosen's allegations are confirmed by information on Harris' congressional website, which also states that Harris has been a co-sponsor for 268 other bills.

Rosen said she enjoys her frequent visits to the Eastern Shore, something she plans to continue when elected. She said she has heard from a few real estate agents and would enjoy living on the Shore after retiring from her public relations firm, the Rosen Group.

She said she knows how it feels to be ignored by your congressman, noting that since Harris became her congressman, "I haven't seen him once (at an event in her community)."

Since she began the Rosen Group three decades ago, it has worked to promote American-made products and crafts through publications and trade shows. The firm also publishes two magazines on the subject, "AmericanStyle" and "NICHE," oversees the American Made Alliance, which has tackled such issues as encouraging sale of American-made products in Smithsonian Institution gift shops, and maintains a Find American Made website for consumers.

Rosen said her firm's promotion of American-made products "has helped support the creation of 50,000 good paying, family sustaining, American jobs."

She said she has been considering a run for Congress for the past five years, as she has witnessed the loss of American jobs and the increased marketing of foreign-made products.

The labor endorsement was announced Saturday by Bob McIntyre, a Somerset County resident who is president of the DelMarVa Peninsula Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations).

"Wendy Rosen has shown in the private sector that she supports working families, particularly in promoting Made in America products," McIntyre said.

"We expect this will be a hard fought election and Wendy Rose exhibits the tenacity to win," Maryland State and DC AFL-CIO President Fred D. Mason Jr. said in a press release provided at the event by McIntyre.

"I am very grateful for this show of support for my campaign and the working people of the First Congressional District," Rosen said in a prepared statement. "As a Maryland resident and a successful small-business owner and advocate, I know that more jobs are created on Main Street than on Wall Street.

"I am running for Congress to provide the people of the First Congressional District with the leadership they desperately need to create jobs and move our economy forward," Rosen said.

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