WASHINGTON—Sounding the alarm over threats to democracy, Teachers/AFT President Randi Weingarten is urging her union’s 1.88 million members to hit the streets between now and Election Day to defend it.
Specifically, in her keynote address on July 16 to the union’s convention, she wants 25,000 teachers and other AFT members out on the streets whenever they can—along with phone banking, ringing doorbells, e-mails, voting rights cards, and more—to campaign for pro-worker lawmakers and against the oligarchs and billionaires who now rule U.S. politics.
And to make sure those anti-working-class elements, led by anti-union GOP President Donald Trump, don’t steal this election, the union will recruit an additional special 5,000-member brigade to keep a sharp eye on and try to halt intimidation, repression, and other tactics of the elite and their political puppets. She labeled those foes outright fascists.
And it’s not just Trump, Weingarten explained.
“This election will decide whether we are a country governed by the people or ruled by the powerful. A country of opportunity or oligarchy. A country whose people live in freedom or in fear,” she declared.
“Do we want a future in which elections are rigged to maintain one-party control and government is for sale to the highest bidder? Or one in which every person’s vote matters and government serves the people? That’s what’s at stake in November 2026.”
And in 2028, when the presidency will be on the ballot, too, she later added. “The stakes are very high,” Weingarten exclaimed.
“Do we want a future where billionaires and a trillionaire [Elon Musk] continue to grow their wealth at the expense of working people? Or one where working people earn a decent wage, support their families, and take a vacation once in a while?
“Do we want a future in which classrooms lack resources and life-changing research is abandoned? Or one in which we can nurture the potential of every student and continue to lead the world in bold discoveries?
“Do we want a future where big healthcare corporations put profits over people? Or one in which every person—every person—has access to healthcare, and healthcare professionals have the resources, staffing, and power to help their patients?”
Weingarten’s keynote address to her union’s 3,000 convention delegates, meeting in D.C., came at a pivotal political moment.
Her speech preceded by hours a scheduled evening prime time address by Trump. He was expected to repeat his big lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, primarily in big blue cities such as Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Detroit.
He’d then use the lie to again push for the so-called Save Act, a massive GOP voter repression law that would take the entire nation back to the days of Jim Crow or worse. It’s the #1 priority of white nationalist Trump.
The leaders of the Republican-run U.S. House are dreaming up ways to maneuver the misnamed Save Act past a looming Senate filibuster and to tyrannical Trump’s desk. The millionaires and the one billionaire, Elon Musk, back that campaign with their dark money contributions, hidden by being funneled through SuperPACs and the Republican Party structure.
Their latest gambit is to dangle a $10 billion federal fund in front of states that adopt the act’s repressive election control measures, such as mandating proof of U.S. citizenship when you vote and scrubbing voter rolls, particularly of workers, women, and people of color.
Another is to break the Save Act up and insert pieces of it in other must-pass legislation, such as money bills to keep the government going or the annual military authorization bill.
Trump aides also lobby for empowering roving squads of vigilantes, plus Trump-sent National Guards and other military units, to “monitor” the polls, especially in cities with majorities of voters of color.
Weingarten, a New York City civics teacher who also holds a law degree, told the delegates Trump is a particular problem not just because of the present, but because of the past—and specifically the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol invasion and insurrection.
Referring to Trump’s attempt to convert the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence into a glorification of himself, Weingarten declared: “Mr. President, you don’t own July Fourth, you own January 6.”
After defining the threat, Weingarten pivoted to how to defeat it: Turning out overwhelming masses of voters, and protecting them and their rights, is the way to beat the right.
“The future we want is within reach. We can win majorities in the House and in the Senate and in state capitals. Majorities who will act on our priorities. But only if we vote, get others out to vote, and protect the vote.”
Weingarten explained 1.3 million AFT-linked people—members and their families—live in states and congressional districts with competitive races this fall. That includes 600,000 in gubernatorial battleground states and 464,000 in the top seven U.S. Senate battleground states.
“And we have more than 1,000 members and voting family members in” each of “86 critical, competitive congressional districts.”
Pro-worker forces, including organized labor as a whole will, need a net gain of four Senate seats to retake control there and three U.S. House seats.
Though she did not name them, the senatorial battlegrounds include but are not limited to Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio. Gubernatorial battlegrounds include Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, most of the West Coast, including Arizona and Nevada, Colorado, and North Carolina.
The House races may be a tall order, however, not because AFT members will be unenthusiastic, but because respected non-partisan analysts say there are far fewer tossup seats than in years, especially after GOP gerrymandering earlier this year, mostly in the deep-red South. Southern states are also enacting their own voter repression laws.
“Can we do it?” Weingarten asked. “People power can win, but we need to be all in, and that means we need you to be all in. No one can do everything, but each of us can do something to win in November and achieve the better future we fight for.
“So are we going to vote? Are we going to get out the vote? Are we going to protect the vote? That’s the energy and commitment we need to achieve the America we dream of: An America where everyone has opportunity and economic security. An America where everyone’s dignity and freedoms are respected. An America whose democracy not only endures but finally lives up to its noble ideals.”
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