Labor Movement Delivers Key Wins in 2022 Midterm Elections
Midterm elections aren’t historically kind to the party that controls the White House. In fact, on average, the President’s party loses 28 seats in the House of Representatives and four Senate seats during midterms. That wasn’t the case in 2022, as proworker candidates fared far better than predicted by the pundits, stemming the “red wave” that so many projected.
Indeed, the pro-labor ranks of the US Senate were expanded by one when Senator Raphael Warnock (D) beat back a challenge from antiunion candidate Herschel Walker. Sen. Warnock’s victory ensures that Senate committees will now be able to more effectively move proworker
initiatives and appointments through the chamber. While the exceedingly narrow margin of GOP
control in the House means that Republicans must carefully weigh any proposed attacks on working families and their labor unions.
One of the key reasons for these results is that the country as a whole voted against extremist,
election-denying candidates, and for candidates they felt were more in touch with the issues that mattered to them and their families. In many key races, workers made the difference.
elections at a construction site.
And the victories for labor friendly candidates were not limited to federal races. Throughout the
nation, candidates who supported working families were consistently rewarded at the ballot box.
In Michigan, voters returned control of the State House to worker-friendly Democrats who
have pledged to end the state’s anti-union “right-to-work” law, while in Pennsylvania, Democrats captured the House of Representatives. Similarly, Democrats retained critical governorships in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, and won new governorships in Arizona, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
Our Movement Our Moment
BAC President Tim Driscoll praised union brothers and sisters for their canvassing efforts throughout this election cycle. “These important victories for worker-friendly legislators could not have happened without the hard work of the BAC and our brothers and sisters in the labor movement - especially in critical battleground states,” he said.
Many BAC members invested their time heavily into the AFL-CIO Labor 2022 program by knocking on doors, phone-banking, taking the political conversation to the jobsite.
“We kept our pro-labor majority in the U.S. Senate because of tireless campaigning from union members across the country,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said. “Some people said our pro-labor majority was a lost cause. But we showed them what we can do when we keep fighting.”
Labor unions continue to have their moment under the most pro-union administration in decades. According to a Gallup poll released at the end of August, 71% of Americans approve of labor unions, up from 64% before the pandemic – and the highest recorded in more than half a century.
From October 2021 to June 2022, union representation petitions filed at the National Labor Relations Board increased 58%, compared to the same time over the previous year. By May 25, fiscal year 2022 petitions exceeded the total number of petitions filed in all of fiscal 2021.
The Fight Isn’t Over
A divided Congress will make it more difficult for the Biden administration to move its legislative agenda forward. The administration will turn its attention from Congress to the federal agencies it oversees in order to achieve its labor and employment goals.
“We know the fight isn’t over – we’ll soon be called upon again to stand up for workers’ rights and to ensure that all Americans have access to the ballot box,” BAC President Tim Driscoll said. “In the interim let’s remain engaged on the issues that affect BAC members’ livelihood and why elections matter.”