Statement of AFT President Edward J. McElroy on 2006 Election Results

AFT deployed more than 400 retirees, volunteers and staff to assist affiliates and the AFL-CIO in member education and get-out-the-vote efforts.  In the final four days of this election alone, more than 185,000 union volunteers participated in an unprecedented electoral effort, making 7.9 million phone calls, knocking on 3.5 million doors and reaching 2 million workers at the worksite.  The labor program also focused on turning out millions of infrequent voters in battleground states. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — 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. 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. 

Voters rejected candidates who enacted or supported policies that have hurt ordinary Americans and have done incalculable damage to our country. The party that once prided itself on fiscal restraint ran up record deficits, hampering investment in national priorities like education, and left a long-term legacy of economic recklessness. The party served not as a model for the world, but as an example of what unchecked power can yield. 

Poor and middle-income Americans have been hit particularly hard by these policies, but their prospects look considerably better with the incoming Congress, governors and state legislatures. For one thing, the president no longer has a rubber stamp in both houses of Congress for his misguided agenda that has shortchanged public education, threatened the economic security of working and retired Americans, and attempted to weaken workers’ rights. 

Democrats now have an opportunity to translate the priorities they campaigned on into legislation and programs. We look forward to working with the new leaders in Congress and state houses to enact laws that serve the common good, give struggling Americans the help they need to get back on their feet, and enable working Americans to prosper.

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