https://portside.org/2026-11-04/labor-movement-organizing-powers-pro-worker-majorities-congress

Union voters mobilized in historic numbers to secure sweeping landmark victories up and down the ballot across the country, including a record number of union member candidates elected to office. The organizing was driven by the AFL-CIO’s largest-ever midterm mobilization, with a singular focus on the pocketbook issues voters said were their top priority.

At the 30th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention in June, the nation’s largest labor federation set a goal of turning out at least 2 million more union voters in this election than in 2022. To reach that, AFL-CIO turned out tens of thousands of volunteers, who reached more than 16 million union voters. The program made a concerted effort by reaching out to several million disengaged voters, many of whom lived in a union member’s  household but had never previously been contacted by a union volunteer.

As a direct result of this work, union voters turned out in historic numbers. Exit polls showed union households voted 21 points more for Democrats than Republicans nationwide, shaping results that were decisive for control of Congress.

“This blue wave was union-made. The billionaires had the money in this election, but working people had the power,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “The people who make this country run issued a clear mandate last night. Speaking with a unified voice, workers demanded that their elected leaders fight to raise their wages and lower costs, expand access to health care and unions, hold billionaire CEOs accountable, and check the Trump administration’s attacks on their freedoms. The labor movement is ready to work with these newly elected members of Congress, governors and state legislators on a bold agenda to deliver real change for the working class.”  

The AFL-CIO’s program operated in 35 states and powered watershed election results:

• 639 union members and counting have been elected—which means a record high number of union members will be seated in elected office next year. Troy Jackson in Maine, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico in Texas, Bob Brooks in Pennsylvania, Brian Poindexter in Ohio, Sam Forstag in Montana and many other prominent candidates are card-carrying union members.
   
• The labor movement’s deep, year-round, nationwide infrastructure was behind further historic gubernatorial and congressional victories: Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, Josh Turek and Rob Sand in Iowa, Adam Hamilton in Kansas, Sherrod Brown and Amy Acton in Ohio, Annie Andrews in South Carolina, as well as House districts.
   
• Working people overcame decades of brutal attacks on their rights to overhaul state governments across the country. They won trifectas in Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and took back the statehouses in North Carolina and Georgia. Union voters broke seven legislative supermajorities in Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio and South Carolina.

Union voter turnout was built through years of organizing and outreach, including:

• A seven-figure paid digital and streaming media campaign that hyper-targeted union members and households in 39 key House and Senate races. The ads featured real union members’ voices that generated more than 221 million unique impressions across all races, with a 65% to 72% completion rate, showing strong engagement with the content.
   
• The AFL-CIO wasted no time in organizing and talking to working people about the pain they were feeling under President Trump’s economy—including in battleground states—kicking off at the beginning of 2025. Through our Department of People Who Work for a Living field hearings, a 26-state bus tour and door-to-door blitzes in key districts in spring 2026, union members built and deepened relationships through consistent, ongoing engagement with voters across the country. 
   
• Since Labor Day, union volunteers have reached 14.9 million voters at the door, on the phone and in the worksite to solidify support for a pro-worker Congress. Every conversation had unique value, given the high degree of trust union families have with union members, who research shows are among the most credible messengers in the country. Union voters also were among the most enthusiastic in the nation to go to the polls. 83% of union members reported being “very motivated” to vote, a 10-point increase from 2022.
   
• Union P.O.W.E.R., a 50-state election protection program, trained more than 30,000 union volunteers, deployed 54 election protection coordinators across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, along with dozens of highly trained union lawyers to 24 states under particular threat from the Trump administration. These lawyers and volunteers were on the ground in the weeks leading up to and on Election Day, and they will continue to work in the field to ensure every ballot is counted.