WASHINGTON—AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler says workers are “sick and tired of both parties”—but she meant something specific: Republicans who enable Trump’s agenda, and Democrats who talk pro-worker but cozy up to the same corporate donors. Either way, she said, workers trust unions, and the federation is turning that trust into votes for pro-worker, pro-union candidates—provided they stand strong against corporate cash.
Shuler dwelled on politics in her annual State of the Unions address on Sept. 1. She repeated the federation’s goal of turning out 16 million votes from union members and their families, up from 14 million in 2024, and said the AFL-CIO would deploy 50,000 members in key states to protect the vote and the count.
That threat is real. Trump has mused about stationing ICE agents at the polls—seen as intimidation of the voters he targets: women, students, people of color—while allies pursue other ways to suppress turnout: blocking mailed ballots, banning vote by mail, stacking election boards with loyalists.
Meanwhile, the 50 biggest donors to congressional campaigns, led by Elon Musk, have poured $1.6 billion into races this cycle, trying to buy the election, Shuler said.
“We can’t outspend them. We can’t compete with the billionaire TV ads. But we don’t have to…. Our answer is people talking to people,” she said, adding that beating back the oligarchs will be a long fight beyond 2026.
Shuler also pointed to the gap between the rich and everyone else: CEO pay rose 21% last year and is now 312 times the median worker’s pay, though Musk’s $158 billion compensation package stands as an outlier. He is paid 5,387 times the media worker’s salary.
She repeated labor’s goal of organizing two million more workers in five years—not far-fetched, since membership grew by half a million last year despite Trump’s gutting of contracts covering a million federal workers.
On the economy, Shuler said the federation’s members think “shit’s too expensive,” citing a new poll: 94% of workers say costs are too high, and four in five say paychecks aren’t keeping up with groceries, rent, child care, and gas.
She criticized Trump’s war on Iran and his voter repression—but didn’t spare Democrats, either, echoing progressives and unions who say party leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries haven’t stood up to Trump strongly enough, because too many Democrats depend on the same corporate donors as the GOP.
“Republicans…have rubber-stamped Trump’s needless wars, chaotic tariffs, and attacks on our communities,” she said. “At the same time, we have too many Democrats who pay lip service to working people…and then take office and cozy up to the same corporations we’re fighting on the picket lines. This year, it’s time to put the full weight of the labor movement behind candidates who will actually deliver.”
That frustration has fueled a wave of insurgent wins, from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Michigan Senate nominee Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Florida’s Angie Nixon.
Mass mobilization, Shuler said, is the answer to corporate cash. “Billionaires can buy their yachts…but they cannot buy our democracy, and we’re not going to let them try,” she said. The three closest 2024 Senate races—Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin—were decided by a combined 63,000 votes out of nearly 16 million cast, she noted.
“One midterm election is not going to fix every problem,” Shuler said. “But winning in November…puts us directly on the path. So, from now until Nov. 3, every day is an all-out sprint.”
- WATCH Liz Shuler’s full State of the Unions address.
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