PALMDALE — Bryan Caforio delivered a campaign speech to United Aerospace Workers union members last Sunday that, from “hello” to “thank you,” lasted maybe three minutes.

The congressional candidate’s brevity spoke volumes.

With the June 5 primary days away, Caforio no longer needs to persuade union groups like UAW Local 887 to support him. They’ve been behind him since the early weeks of his campaign, which Caforio kicked off in May 2017, not coincidentally, at the Laborers International Union hall around the corner from the UAW’s headquarters in Palmdale.

If the 35-year-old attorney defeats three other Democrats and Rep. Steve Knight, R-Santa Clarita, in the most closely watched House election in Los Angeles County, it will be due in no small part to endorsements and contributions from organized labor.

“There is an all-out assault on unions and working families, and I just think that’s wrong,” Caforio told about two dozen men and women from the aerospace union. That was about all the soaring rhetoric he offered in a talk that was mostly about thanking listeners for their backing.

After a round of applause, Caforio headed outside to greet members of Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters Local 209 who were gathering for a day of canvassing on his behalf.

Caforio is running for Congress for the second time after coming in second to Knight in 2016 in both the primary and the November general election. Familiarity made him the front-runner among Democrats who started lining up last year to try to deny Knight a third term representing California’s 25th House District. Caforio took advantage of his track record to corner the market in union backing before main Democratic rivals Katie Hill and Jess Phoenix and later entrant Mary Pallant really got started.

The result: Caforio’s website lists endorsements from 18 labor groups, including unions representing longshoremen, nurses, painters, plumbers, painters, pipe-fitters, welders, steelworkers and postal, utility, sheet-metal, transportation and communications workers. Labor groups dominate the list of top Caforio campaign contributors at OpenSecrets.org., headed by $10,000 each from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Sheet Metal Workers Union.

It’s more than moral and monetary support. Unions provide a campaign workforce for the last-ditch get-out-the-vote effort. In return, they hope to have influence with the member of Congress from the district that spans the border of L.A. and Ventura counties and parts of the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Simi and Antelope valleys.

“From what we know of Bryan, he’s going to be a champion for working families and helping to build the middle class, and particularly here in the Antelope Valley, to help the aerospace industry keep growing,” said Homer Marshall, a retired Boeing ground equipment repairman and past president of UAW Local 887, whose members built the Space Shuttle fleet, Saturn rocket engines and B-1 bombers.

That’s exactly how Caforio aims to present himself, emphasizing his support for a “Medicare for all” healthcare policy, equal pay for women and paid family leave, and opposition to the tax law passed by congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump.

While Caforio boasts big support from union and Democratic groups, Hill’s and Phoenix’s endorsements and funding sources tell different stories in what is seen as a race for the second spot next to Knight in the top-two primary.

Phoenix is a geologist. Her endorsements and contributors reflect her background in science and education. She trails Caforio and Hill in fundraising but casts this in a positive light.

“The contributions and endorsements make sense based on the type of campaigns each individual candidate is running,” Phoenix said. “Our campaign is a true grassroots effort, and this is why we have the most individual donors, with over 7,000. That’s over 1,500 more than anyone else in the race.”

Hill is the former head of a non-profit organization that fights homelessness. Her endorsements and contributors are headed by women’s advocacy groups. Also, six members of Congress endorse her.

“Katie’s endorsements show she is going to be a champion of women’s reproductive freedom and women’s rights and LGBTQ issues, and [show] that members of the California delegation know she can be effective from day one,” said Zack Czajkowski, Hill’s campaign manager.

Caforio was close behind Hill in total fundraising and narrowly ahead of her in cash in the end-of-March report to federal election officials.

Outside the UAW meeting room, he spoke confidently of the June 5 vote.

Born in Fountain Valley and educated at UCLA and Yale Law School, Caforio is often told he has an oddly southern accent, right down to dropping his g’s; he thinks it might be from listening to country music growing up, and from clerking for Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge in Billings, Montana. (Tip: Don’t tell the Democrat he sounds vaguely like Ted Cruz.) An interview was interrupted a few times by the campaign’s “director of ground game” — DOGG, a golden retriever who belongs to campaign manager Nicole DeMont.

“So many more people are paying attention [than in 2016],” Caforio said. “That was a presidential year, and most people were focused on the presidential election. Now people are seeing that didn’t go the right way, and they’re seeing we don’t need to wait until 2020 to take back our country.

“For a year and a half, many people have been watching this administration and just getting frustrated. [Trump is] taking away our health care, they’re taking away our immigration, they’re putting corporations first. Now we’re at a point where we can do something about it. If we push hard over the next six months, we [Democrats] can take this seat and hopefully others across the country. We can get the [House] majority, and that will change chairmanships. We’ll have the ability to serve subpoenas and that will help deal with the corruption. And then we can start tackling the issues that affect people’s lives.”

It’s a message aimed at Democratic voters, who have a 3.6 percentage-point edge over Republicans in the latest registration data. In the 2016 election, the district went for Democrat Hillary Clinton by 6.7 points.

If the message is delivered, Caforio can thank unions for helping.

This article has been altered since it was first posted to correct the day on which Bryan Caforio spoke to UAW Local 887 members.