Richter to Gibbs: Return your Never-Trump Labor Dollars Immediately

TOMS RIVER, NJ — February 5, 2020 — David Richter, Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s Third Congressional District, today called for opponent Kate Gibbs to return the more than $10,000 her campaign has already pocketed from the anti-Trump International Union of Operating Engineers and its members and to reject any and all future donations or other support from them.

“Kate Gibbs is a staffer at Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative (ELEC) 825, whose affiliated labor union proudly endorsed Hillary Clinton and spent more than $3 million trying to defeat Donald Trump in 2016,” said Richter. “While I was speaking in support of President Trump and his Keep America Great agenda last Tuesday in Wildwood, Kate Gibbs was hoping no one discovered that she reports to work every day to advance the agenda of a bunch of Never-Trumpers, and whose own campaign has been bank-rolled by the same pro-Hillary Clinton organization.”

Kate Gibbs has worked for ELEC 825 since 2014, and currently serves as Deputy Director1. During the 2016 Presidential election, the International Union of Operating Engineers, of which ELEC 825 is directly affiliated, endorsed Hillary Clinton for President and donated $3,012,1553 in support of Clinton’s campaign, making the labor union one of her top campaign donors.

The comments of Gibbs’ own boss, ELEC 825 Business Manager Greg Lalevee, shows exactly how anti-Trump Gibbs’ local union is. In 2016, Lalevee stated that “If building a wall with Mexico is Trump’s infrastructure plan, we’re not interested. The country can’t afford [his] massive learning curve.”

“Kate Gibbs has received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the same union bosses that tried to undermine the election of President Trump,” added Richter. “Kate Gibbs and her union bosses may not want to build the wall, but President Trump and I do, and the vast majority of Republican voters in the Third District do as well. I am calling on Kate Gibbs to immediately return the union contributions she has received from the Operating Engineers and to reject any and all future support from the union, its leadership and any of their affiliates,” demanded Richter.

Richter is the former CEO of global construction management firm Hill International. A lifelong Republican, he grew up in and has spent most of his life living and working in South Jersey. He earned two bachelor’s degrees and a law degree from Penn as well as master’s degrees from Oxford and Harvard. Richter and his wife Michelle, who have been married for 20 years, are the parents of four daughters.

For more information on the David Richter for Congress campaign, please visit our website at www.Richter2020.com.
###
Fact Check:
1. https://elec825.org/kate-gibbs – accessed 1/31/20
2. http://local49.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/IUOE-Endorses-Hillary-Clinton.pdf – accessed 1/31/20
3. https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/contributors?id=n00000019 – accessed 1/31/20
4. https://www.enr.com/articles/40628-industry-elections-cash-does-the-talking-in-2016 – accessed 1/31/20