The labor movement's unprecedented campaign to engage members and get out the vote in this election year has helped secure a new balance of power in Congress. The level of political action was unprecedented, and it spelled success for labor-backed candidates at all levels of government.

Virginia AFL-CIO president Jim Leaman (left), AFGE secretary-treasurer J. David Cox and CWA secretary-treasurer Barbara Easterling join Jim Webb, at podium, for an Oct. 28 labor rally in Northern Virginia. Photo by Bill Burke/Page One Photography.

Democrats will control the House of Representatives in the next Congress by a commanding margin—the first time in 12 years that House Democrats have the opportunity to set the national agenda. Democrats held a 229-196 advantage in the House, with 10 races undecided. In the Senate, with labor-backed candidate Jim Webb now declared the winner in Virginia, Democrats have a 51-49 advantage in that chamber.

And Democrats secured a 28-22 advantage among the nation’s governors—the first time in 12 years that Democrats have held a national advantage at the top state office. The tide carried deep into the state legislatures. Democrats took control of both legislative chambers in 23 states and improved their margins in others, the Associated Press reports. "At the end of the day, the tide really just moved in one direction," one analyst told AP.

This election reflected a deep voter dissatisfaction with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress, and the victories for labor-endorsed candidates demonstrated the success of grass-roots operations of the AFL-CIO's Labor 2006 program that focused on key concerns of working families.

Energized, Mobilized, Engaged

The AFL-CIO reports that in the final four days of this election alone, more than 187,000 union volunteers participated in an unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort, making 7.9 million phone calls, knocking on 3.5 million doors and reaching 2 million workers at the work site. In addition, the program focused on turning out millions of infrequent voters in battleground states.

The AFT deployed more than 400 retirees, release-time volunteers and staff to assist affiliates and the AFL-CIO in member education and get-out-the-vote efforts. The union also sent out AFL-CIO and AFT e-Activist messages in the weeks leading up to Nov. 7, including video clips of AFT phone bankers and a GOTV message on election eve from AFT president Edward J. McElroy in Cleveland, Ohio (see the YouTube clip).

The bottom line was an energized, mobilized and engaged union vote that made a difference in almost every close race in 2006. A commanding 74 percent of union voters supported candidates backed by organized labor. And unions did an astounding job of getting voters to the polls in a midterm election—79 percent of union voters who voted in he 2004 presidential year but failed to turn out for the last midterm election were out in force in 2006.

"These election results are a rebuke to the Republican majority that has wielded so much political power in recent years in state and federal offices, said AFT president Edward J. McElroy in a statement. "Republican leadership has not governed with moderation and cooperation, but with extremism and exclusion, turning their backs on even the moderate members of their own party."

In race after race, turnout and solid support from organized labor were the difference makers. They played a deciding role in key senate races in Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and other states. They generated the margin in closely watched governors' races in Maryland, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. And they generated across-the-board victories for labor on minimum wage, taxpayer bill of rights (TABOR) and '65-percent solution’ ballot issues (see related story).

November 13, 2006