Several labor unions are forming a super PAC that will target Donald Trump. | Getty Unions prepare super PAC to take down Trump

Top labor unions are finalizing a new super PAC that will solicit cash from outside donors to take down Donald Trump in key battleground states.

The super PAC is engineered by top officials at the AFL-CIO and three major public employee unions: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the American Federation of Teachers; and the National Education Association. The Service Employees International Union considered joining the PAC but has since opted out.


Unions may opt in for $1 million, sources say. The PAC's organizers aim to raise about $50 million by soliciting money from unions and liberal donors outside the labor movement.

Super PACs are prohibited from donating to individual candidates or coordinating their media spending with political campaigns, but they may raise unlimited sums from individuals, corporations and unions to support or oppose candidates. They proliferated after the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision cleared the way for a 2010 appellate decision that ended limits on contributions to independent-expenditure committees.

The new super PAC would not be the first funded by labor unions. But it represents a departure because in the past union-run super PACs have been funded almost entirely by the unions themselves. Unions have donated frequently to liberal super PACs outside the labor movement, but non-labor donors have seldom contributed to union-run super PACs. The new super PAC is intended to reverse that flow.

All the unions involved in the new venture have endorsed Hillary Clinton. The AFL-CIO (not a union but a labor federation) has not, but it's expected to do so before the general election. The new super PAC will concentrate its spending on major battleground states like Ohio and Wisconsin. It will also pour money into Senate races, focusing initially on Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Nevada.

A source close to the discussions said “one of the goals is to make sure that the election is about issues that matter to working people and not just a personality contest.” The unions believe they can compete with other super PACs for private donations on the strength of their get-out-the-vote capabilities.

A key goal for the super PAC will be to wrench the pro-worker message back from Trump, who has attracted blue-collar support campaigning against immigration, trade liberalization and offshoring, but also favors right-to-work laws and opposes a federal minimum wage increase.

The new PAC won’t start spending money until a Democratic candidate secures the nomination. A launch date for the super PAC is still under discussion.

Sources say the PAC will be led by Paul Tewes, a highly respected operative in the union world who also has extensive ties within the Democratic Party as a former political director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a top director of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

The AFL-CIO discussed the new super PAC at its winter meeting in February. AFSCME, AFT and the NEA hope to build a data operation and email list to rival that of Organizing for America, President Barack Obama’s grassroots organizing vehicle.

Some unions have criticized the big-money effort, questioning whether wealthy liberal donors share the interests of the labor movement’s working- and middle-class members. The new PAC is an extension of the labor movement’s recent overtures to the wealthy club of major liberal donors, the Democracy Alliance.

AFL-CIO leaders have attempted to placate dissenting union members by emphasizing that labor will acquire a data operation built for the long term that is focused entirely on labor issues. The super PAC will remain in business after the election for future campaigns and union advocacy, sources said.